Terrorists hold five negotiators, give Zamfara community two extra days to gather balance

Terrorists working for the notorious King Bello Turji have held five elders from the Moriki community in Zurmi area. Zamfara State after the people failed to collect the N20 million protection rate imposed on him.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported how the terrorists imposed a protection fee of N20 million on residents of Moriki. Sources told this newspaper that N6,500 was given to each household to raise money.

Moriki has witnessed constant terrorist attacks for years and the residents agreed to pay the protection fees imposed by the terrorists to stop further attacks on the community.

Two local sources told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone on Wednesday morning that the elders were among the seven residents responsible for handing over the N10.5 million already collected to Mr. Turji’s commanders on Tuesday evening.

Garba Yusuf, a resident of Moriki but based in Gusau, the state capital, said: “When the residents went to see the bandits in their camp, they were told that the community could only collect N10.5 million, which means they are missing . N9.5 million. After a long argument, the bandits said they would not let all the seven people return home because they wanted to make sure the balance is paid. They also said the bandits were being nice to our community by giving us a two-day extension.”

Mr. Yusuf, who said one of the arrested elders was a childhood friend of his late father, said the terrorists gave them two options to complete the balance or they will kill the five elders.

“Of course, we know that after the guerilla is killed, it will still attack the whole community. In fact, it still holds some people in our community, so it remains the same.”

Another resident of the community, Jamilu Shehu, said the community may not get the balance in the two days given because all avenues of raising money have been exhausted.

“I can’t imagine the level of this evil. This is alarming because a bigger percentage of the people in the community are farmers and if we don’t go back to work and pay or sell our farm produce, how do you expect that amount? said Shehu.

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The official, Mr. Shehu said the community had reached out to all members who do not live there, but the target is still not being achieved “due to the economic condition of the people”.

He said when the elders went to give money to the terrorists, they threatened to increase it to N50 million but for the intervention of some top terrorists in the camp.

“One of those arrested is my neighbor, Musa Mai Akuya. Some of these people are even falling to feed their families and this will now make life more difficult for their children.”

State police spokesman Mohammed Shehu could not be reached for comment on the incident. He did not even respond to an SMS sent to his phone number.

The security situation in the North West and part of the North Central has led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions more in a decade.

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The activities of the terrorists have forced hundreds of people to flee their villages to seek safety in cities, including Niger Republic.

North-western states especially Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi and the north-central states of Niger have been heavily affected by terrorist activities.