The re-emergence of Notorious Ansaru Leader Abdullahi Abubakar popularly known as Dogo Gide has stoked fear and panic amongst residents in Northern Nigeria.
This comes after the rebel commander claimed responsibility for shooting a helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, in Niger State, North-Central Nigeria on Monday July 18, a claim which has been disproved by the Nigerian Army. The incident has however, sparked various reactions across the Nigerian media ecosystem.
The attack on the chopper was celebrated by Gide’s foot soldiers in a short video which emerged online.
According to military officials, the helicopter was on a mission to evacuate casualties when it crashed at Chukuba hamlet, which is close to Shiroro. Some of the troops who had been slain by terrorists during an ambush in the state were being evacuated by helicopter.
“By God’s grace, this is what we will be showing you. These are dead bodies of Nigerian soldiers that attacked us with the aim of killing us.
“They wanted to kill Dogo Gide. But Dogo Gide by God’s grace is still alive and he will not die,” a man speaking with a strong Fulani accent stated as he displayed the remains of the fallen soldiers and the helicopter’s wreckage.
Who is Dogo Gide?
Gide gained notoriety in 2018 after killing Tsoho Buhari popularly known as Buharin Daji, who was once the most brutal and feared terrorist in Nigeria’s Northwest region as at that time.
Buhari was assassinated by Gide, who got into a fight with him when Buhari allegedly rustled his in-law’s livestock.
Gide, who was raised in Niger State’s Erana District, Shiroro Local Government Area, attended the Qur’anic school run by Isah Erana, a well-liked Muslim cleric and former chief Imam of Erana town.
While the exact beginning of Gide’s illegal activities were unknown, they initially consisted of attacking villages, stealing harvests, and rustling animals, much like the various gangs operating in Shiroro and nearby villages.
After he came in contact with members of Ansaru and Boko Haram, who had sleeper cells in the area, the course of his illicit activity quickly shifted.
The local Boko Haram members instructed him to stop raiding communities and instead focus on attacking government buildings, officials, and institutions like schools, which they see as ‘haram’ and hence should not be attacked.
In order to kidnap people from the Kaduna-Abuja bound train last year, Gide collaborated with Malam Abba, an Ansaru leader, and Ali Kawajo, who himself shot down a NAF helicopter in Zamfara in 2022.
In 2021, he also kidnapped students from the Federal Government College Yauri, claiming that Western education is pointless for kids, in line with the ideologies of Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Ansaru terrorist group.
In the same year, reports emerged online indicating that Gide was killed following a dispute with his Deputy Commander Sani Dan Makama at Kuyanbana Forest linking Zamfara – Birnin Gwari – Dogon Dawa towns.
He prevents his gang members from targeting villages near the Kwiambana Game Reserve in Zamfara State, where he was rumoured to be hiding.
Additionally, he outlawed the sale of alcohol, its consumption, and the employment of commercial sex workers in the Babban Doka neighbourhood of Zamfara.
He issued a warning that anyone selling any of the illegal substances will be executed without further trial.
Banditry in Nigeria’s Northwest
Banditry in Northern Nigeria in an ongoing struggle which started in 2011 caused by the war between the mostly Fulani herders and Hausa ethnic groups.
The bandit war has its roots in the ongoing herder-farmer disputes in Nigeria. Communities competed ferociously for the few available resources as a result of the declining environment and the lack of water and fertile land.
A constant flow of desperate people turning to criminal activity to make a living has been made possible by unemployment, widespread poverty, and a lack of effective local administration. Large forested ungoverned areas enabled hiding and the establishment of camps deep within the forest.
Bandits are notorious for infiltrating communities in droves, on motorbikes in order to rob and abduct locals, killing anyone who tries to fight them.
In Northwest Nigeria, illegal weapons are common. Gold mines are under the hands of bandit gangs, who use the gold to buy weapons from domestic and foreign arms dealers – with reportedly over 60,000 illicit firearms in use. With barely 1,950 people to police the whole border, northern Nigeria’s border is undefended, making it easier for crossborder and transnational crimes.
The Bandits
In Zamfara state alone, there are over 30,000 bandits and over 100 camps, as of 2021.
1.Ali Kachalla: Ali Kachalla, a bandit commander in his early 30s, was born in the little village of Madada, which is close to Dansadau. Kachalla controls over 200 bandits in the Kuyambana Forest.
A few huts along the Goron Dutse River, around 25 km south of Dansadau, serve as his main base of operations. The villages of Dandalla, Madada, and Gobirawa Kwacha are directly under the authority of Kachalla’s gang, from which he targets Dansadau and other nearby settlements. The nomadic gang of Dogo Gide is affiliated with Kachalla’s group.
A Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet was shot down on July 18, 2021, and a Mowag Piranha armoured personnel carrier was obliterated in Dansadau on July 23, 2021, among other attacks by Kachalla’s gang.
2.Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno: A band of Fulani robbers is led by Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno. He is in charge of more than 1,000 bandits in the Sububu Forest in Zamfara State and has ties to gangs in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.
He entered into a peace agreement with Shinkafi, although he has moved his operations elsewhere. He is the boss of roughly a thousand bandits who operate in Zamfara State. His men are notorious for carrying out kidnappings and attacks on villagers and tourists in the Sokoto State local governments of Sabon Birni, Rabah, and Isa. Their tentacles even extend into Katsina State. Halilu, one of Nigeria’s most feared bandits, has amassed a powerful force of young men.
3. Kachalla Turji: The commander of a bandit gang that plunders nearby cities, villages, and settlements along the Sokoto Road is Kachalla Turji, also known as Gudda Turji. Security personnel carried out a raid on Kachalla Turji’s primary base on July 17, 2021, and detained his father there. When Kachalla Turji next raided the villages of Kurya, Keta, Kware, Badarawa, Marisuwa, and Maberaya, they killed 42 people, kidnapped 150 people, and set 338 homes ablaze. He was born in Zamfara State’s Shinkafi Local Government.
4. Dan Karami: Dan Karami is the leader of a bandit gang that operates around Safana, Dan Musa, and Batsari local government areas of Katsina State. Karami’s group is responsible for kidnapping 300 students from a secondary boarding school.
On January 23, 2021, Karami was injured during a clash with a rival group headed by Mani Na Saleh Mai Dan Doki over the control of guns, ammunition and stolen cattle. The clash took place at Illela village and killed 20 of Dan Karami’s bandits and nine civilians.
5. Adamu Aliero Yankuzo: Adamu Aliero Yankuzo, better known as Yankuzo, is the leader of a bandit group that operates in the forested regions of Katsina and Zamfara states. He controls a bandit group numbering about 2,000.
Yankuzo is 45 years old and was born in Yankuzo village. He has at least one son. On June 16, 2020, Yankuzo was declared wanted by the Katsina State Police Command for five million Nigerian naira. Yankuzo’s gang has carried out a number of attacks, including the killing 52 people in Kadisau village in revenge for the arrest of his son on June 9, 2020. He was declared wanted after his gang members confessed to the kidnapping of innocent villagers, killing of women and rustling of more than hundreds of cattle.