Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Zamfara State Police Command has delivered a decisive blow to armed banditry in the North‑West, neutralising one suspected gang member and arresting three others during an intelligence‑led raid in Kasuwan Daji, Kaura Namoda Local Government Area. The operation, carried out on the evening of 29 May 2026 by operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), also led to the recovery of a significant cache of firearms, ammunition and other exhibits from a hideout that had long terrorised the surrounding farming communities.
According to a statement issued on Sunday, 31 May 2026, by the command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Yazid Abubakar, the operation targeted a syndicate that had been on the police watchlist for months. “On 29th May 2026, operatives of the Command’s Violence Crime Response Unit (VCRU), acting on credible intelligence, successfully arrested members of an armed criminal gang terrorising residents of the Kasuwan Daji area of Kaura Namoda Local Government Area,” Abubakar said. The gang, led by one Ali Bahago, had been linked to a series of violent crimes, including armed robbery, cattle rustling and the intimidation of villagers who tried to access their farmlands during the planting season.
During the raid, police operatives intercepted three suspects: Ali Bahago of Danakulu via Kasuwan Daji, Hassan Dan Kure of Kasuwan Daji, and Dahiru Lawali of Gidan Ango. A fourth member of the gang was neutralised after he opened fire on the approaching security team. The police said the suspects were arrested without any casualty to their personnel. In a subsequent search of the residence of the alleged gang leader, Bahago, operatives uncovered an arsenal that testified to the group’s lethal capacity. The recovered items included one pump‑action gun, one single‑barrel gun, a fabricated G3 rifle, two Dane guns, a locally made pistol, nine pump‑action cartridges, four rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, a locally made magazine, a handcuff chain and three Boxer motorcycles.
The seizure of a G3 rifle – a high‑calibre weapon typically associated with military and paramilitary units – is particularly notable. It suggests that the syndicate had access to sophisticated arms, possibly through smuggling networks that traverse the porous borders between Zamfara and neighbouring states. The handcuff chain, the police noted, was likely used to restrain victims during abductions or to enforce extortion payments. The three motorcycles were presumably the gang’s primary mode of transport for launching hit‑and‑run attacks on remote villages before melting back into the dense forests that dot the Kaura Namoda axis.
The raid in Kasuwan Daji is the latest in a series of police offensives in Zamfara State since the appointment of Commissioner of Police Ahmad Muhammad Bello in early 2026. The command has intensified intelligence‑led operations, targeting black spots and hideouts that have served as sanctuaries for armed groups. In the first five months of 2026 alone, police in Zamfara have arrested dozens of suspects, recovered scores of weapons, and rescued several kidnapped victims from forest enclaves.
The success of the Kasuwan Daji operation was partly enabled by community cooperation. Residents of the area had grown weary of repeated attacks and had begun providing actionable intelligence to local police divisions. In the weeks preceding the raid, villagers reported suspicious movements, the sound of motorcycle engines at odd hours, and the sight of armed men crossing the bush tracks that connect Kaura Namoda to the Rugu Forest axis – a vast, ungoverned woodland that stretches across parts of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
The police have promised to sustain the pressure. “The Zamfara State Police Command reiterates its commitment to combating armed criminality and ensuring the safety and security of residents across the state,” Abubakar said. “The Command urges members of the public to continue supporting the police and other security agencies with credible and timely information that will assist in the fight against crime.” Efforts are also ongoing to apprehend other members of the gang who escaped during the raid, and to recover additional exhibits that may have been hidden in secondary locations.
The operation comes just days after the Zamfara State Government renewed its call for the establishment of state police, arguing that the centralised command structure often leaves rural communities vulnerable to protracted periods of attack before reinforcements arrive. While the debate over state policing continues, the Kasuwan Daji raid offers a rare moment of relief for residents who have lived under the shadow of armed gangs for years. The three arrested suspects remain in police custody, and the neutralised gang member has been identified by local sources as a key enforcer for the syndicate. As investigations continue, the police have assured the public that those behind the region’s cycle of violence will be relentlessly pursued and brought to justice.
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