•Over 100 bandits killed
•DSS not involved

Details have emerged on how members of the Zamfara Civilian Protection Guards on Monday night launched a surprise offensive against hundreds of suspected bandits believed to be loyal to wanted terrorist kingpin, Bello Turji.

At the end of the attack which happened near Cida, a remote village in Shinkafi Local Government Area of the state, over 100 suspected bandits lay dead, with dozens of weapons, which included assorted rifles, machine guns, and thousands of bullets, were recovered from the dead bandits.

A security souce disclosed that the State government had mobilized hundreds of guards and, for days, rehearsed at a secret location on strategies to capture Turji and his commanders.

According to the source, even though the operation had the backing of the Zamfara State government, no operstive of the Department of State Services (DSS) was involved. He reported sighting persons who looked like Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) fighters from Borno State.

“After the bloody gunfight, we counted over 100 dead bodies of fighters loyal to Turji. We initially thought he was killed. However, a video Turji released the following day showing he and some loyalists celebrating over bodies of at least nine vigilantes killed in the fight led us to believe that, somehow, he managed to escape,” added the source.

“The offensive against the terrorists’ leader and his loyalists has been heightened with the ZCPG determined to take the fight to Turji,” he declared.