Nigerian Air Force troops have killed Ali Gide Dogo, a notorious terrorist and suspected mastermind of the Abuja Kaduna train attack.
The bandit leader was reportedly killed alongside dozens of his gang members in the forest of Kaduna State in an air raid conducted by Operation Whirl Punch.
A defence intelligence source told PRNigeria that the kingpin and his boys earlier fled Niger State.
They relocated to the residence of one Alhaji Gwarzo in Yadi, Giwa Local Government Area.
The military received the information and dispatched a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) which shelled the building.
Another aerial operation targeted a location 33 nautical miles Northwest of Mando in Kaduna.
Terrorist leaders and foot soldiers under tree covers were struck with several insurgents obliterated.
NAF spokesperson, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet said the offensives in collaboration with ground forces would continue.
Dogo Gide, was one of the suspected masterminds of the March 28 attack on a Kaduna-bound train, perhaps, runs the biggest kidnap-for-ransom franchise in Nigeria.
His operation, which is primarily based in the country’s troubled northwest region, primarily targets government institutions, officials, schools and travellers.
Unlike other armed groups in the region, he eportedly forbade his gang members from attacking villages around the Kwiambana Game Reserve, Zamfara State, where he is believed to be hiding.
So much is his influence across the northwest that he reportedly warned other gangs to stop attacking villages in the area or risk incurring his wrath.
Local sources credit the relative reduction in gunmen attacks on rural communities in Zamfara to Mr Gide’s order – his fight is with the government. He has vowed to make the government pay and bleed.
