Bello Turji, the notorious bandit commander, is said to have kidnapped five inhabitants of Moriki town in the Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The victims allegedly delivered a N10.5 million “Protection Levy” that was imposed on their neighborhood and were then detained.
The Moriki settlement, which is situated 33km along the Kaura Namoda-Shinkafi route, was hit with a N20 million “Protection Levy” by Turji a few weeks ago.
The terror mastermind claimed that if the locals could raise and send the money in less than two weeks, they wouldn’t need to worry about attacks and that each farmer in the town could take care of his field without being intimidated.
The largest town after Zurmi, the seat of the regional government, is an emirate called Moriki. The neighborhood has been keeping track of kidnappings and violent raids.
Since the NAF raid on his home at Fakai village in the neighboring Shinkafi local government region in September, residents claim that Turji has intensified attacks on Moriki and other nearby settlements.
“After he imposed the levy we met at the community level to see what we could do to raise the said amount of money bearing in our minds the consequences of ignoring his demand.”
“We came up with an idea that every house hold in the community must pay N6500 and if we add that we would get the N20 million for onward delivery before the deadline ends.
“We were able to raise N10.6 million as some community members defaulted. We used N100,000 to buy them packs of cigarette, loaves of bread, soft drinks and recharge cards as they instructed.
“Seven members of the community were mobilized and dispatched to deliver the money at an agreed spot near Kasayawa, a community located 1km east of Moriki town. After the delivery team arrived at the location, seventeen Turji boys rode to the spot and asked for the money and other items we bought for them.
“However, when Turji’s attention was drawn to the fact that the money brought was N10.5 million not N20 million as agreed he became angry and ordered his boys to hold five out seven members of the delivery team. He asked them to take the residents to one of his camps in Jirari forest straddling Zurmi and Shinkafi local government areas. Even though two of them escaped and arrived home this morning.
“We are now put on edge and we have started making effort to reach out to him that we will deliver the balance of N10 million to him. We are in a serious trouble as a people,” a resident, Sani Moriki, said.