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Dogo Gide, a vicious terror kingpin allegedly involved in the recent abduction of 137 students from elementary schools in Kaduna State, has been reported dead after a gunfight with military operatives.
But the report has created an atmosphere of uncertainty among the military, counter-insurgency experts, intelligence sources and locals close to the notorious terrorist, PREMIUM TIMES can report.
It was reported that the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji (OPHD) wounded Mr Gide in Madada forest in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State on 12 March, five days after the 137 pupils were kidnapped at a compound shared by a primary and a secondary school in Kuriga.
According to reports, the terror kingpin was later taken to a hospital in Sokoto where he eventually died.
“Woke up to the good news that Dogo Gide, has finally kicked the bucket,” a former presidential spokesperson, Bashir Ahmed, posted on X [formery Twitter]. “The notorious bandits’ leader died from gunshot wounds sustained during a confrontation with Operation Hadarin Daji (OPHD) forces.”
Imran Muhammed, a popular X user with more than 124,000 followers also shared the news on his handle.
“Despite suffering serious injuries, Dogo Gide was said to have been covertly taken to a hospital in Mabera, Sokoto, Sokoto State, where he eventually passed away,” Mr Muhammed posted, claiming a security officer who aided the terror kingpin to the hospital has been detained.
However, that was not the first time Mr Gide would be reported dead.
In 2021, he was rumoured killed by his lieutenant, Sani Makama. However, analysts would later describe the event as military propaganda.
Is he dead?
After the notorious terror kingpin was reportedly killed, a picture of a person with little resemblance to him was shared on social media to substantiate the report, as seen here, here and here.
Using Google Lens, PREMIUM TIMES fact-checked the image and discovered it was fake and misleading.
A Kaduna-based Facebook user, Abdallah Habeeb, identified the person in the picture as Dan Asabe. According to him, the deceased who hailed from a community in Kaduna State, died two weeks ago in Lagos.
“Dan Allah, before we spread out a news make sure we verified it, I have been seeing this picture going viral that he is DOGO GIDE, I want everyone to disregard the news, this is not DOGO GIDE, he is Dan Asabe known as Sabebe,” Mr Habeeb posted on Facebook.
“He is from Tudun Nupawa here in Kaduna,” he continued. “He was into scrap business in Lagos and he was a former football player of Lambu United… He had an accident at Seme Border almost two weeks ago.”
However, the news about Mr Gide’s death remains uncertain, according to interviews with multiple sources including the military, counter-insurgency experts, intelligence sources and locals familiar with his terror activities in Zamfara, Kebbi and Niger states.
An intelligence source monitoring terror reigns in Dansadau, Maru LGA of Zamfara State where Mr Gide and his gang have established camps, especially inside Babandoka, Dan Gurgu and Kuyambana forests, said the terror kingpin died last Thursday, two weeks after a gun duel with military operatives trailing the abductors of the Kuriga students.
“Dogo Gide sustained gunshot injuries during his encounter with the soldiers,” the source who asked not be named for security reasons told PREMIUM TIMES, adding the operatives also killed some of the kingpin’s fighters.
The intelligence source said his local contacts who witnessed the incident told him the terror kingpin was taken on a motorcycle to Kizara village for medical treatment.
“But they told us he died last Thursday night and we have informed the security forces like the police, army and DSS,” he explained, adding he was surprised to see another distorted story flying around a week after.
“That he died in a hospital in Sokoto as people claimed is a big lie,” he emphasised. “Dogo Gide died in Zamfara.”
However, he could not provide evidence to support his claim.
Locals close to Mr Gide in Kebbi and Zamafara, however, gave a different account of what happened, although they too said he sustained gunshot wounds following a clash with the military operatives a few hours after the Kuriga students were kidnapped.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the group responsible for the Kuriga abduction were almost overpowered by the military. They, however, called Mr Gide for reinforcements.
“It was during the reinforcements that he sustained the injuries and lost some of his boys,” a local familiar with the incident told this paper, pleading for anonymity for fear of being targeted by the kingpin.
But another source who is close to Mr Gide and had, on several occasions, mediated between him and families of abducted persons, insisted that Mr Gide is alive.
However, others are still finding it hard to ascertain the condition of Mr Gide, including the military.
When contacted, the Information Officer for Operation Hadarin Daji in Zamfara, Suleiman Omale, an army lieutenant, told this paper the military was still trying to verify the report.
He said the result of “our findings” will be communicated to the public.
A counterinsurgency expert, Yahuza Getso, who monitors Mr Gide’s reign of terror and other kingpins, shares a similar view.
Mr Getso who is also the Managing Director of Eagle Integrated Security and Logistics Company Ltd in Abuja, said the report although “cannot be confirmed at the moment, the picture used to substantiate Mr Gide’s rumoured death is false.”
Mr Gide, the security expert observes, will “surely die” naturally, by military offensive or rebellion as he did to his boss, Buhari Daji, in 2018 before rising to notoriety.
“Some months ago, Dogo Gide sustained injuries and fled the country to treat himself,” Mr Getso told PREMIUM TIMES, refusing to disclose the country the terror kingpin escaped to.
In January, PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Gide’s camp was decimated after a fierce battle between his group and the Ansaru terrorist cell in Zamfara.
Dogo Gide: A vicious terrorist with vast networks
Mr Gide, at birth, was named Abubakar Abdullahi. Locals in the hinterlands of Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State said he was born in Palali, a village near Chukuba where his group claimed to have gunned down a military aircraft last year.
The terror kingpin, according to intelligence sources and experts, has affiliations with jihadist groups like Ansaru and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).
Mr Gide was responsible for many attacks in North-west and North-central Nigeria.
He was one of the suspected masterminds of the 28 March 2022 attack on a Kaduna-bound train.
In July 2021, the terror kingpin and his ally, Kachalla Ali also known as Ali Kawaje, kidnapped over 100 students and eight teachers from the Federal Government College (FGC) in Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State. The kidnapped victims were later released in batches after payment of ransom.
The following year, they kidnapped three Chinese expatriates and then two security guards and another Chinese national at a construction site of the Zungeru Hydro-electric Power Dam project in Shiroro LGA. Although it was not clear how two of the expatriates regained freedom, one of them was later released from Mr Gide’s camp.
A historian who has studied the pattern of banditry in northern Nigeria, Murtala Ahmed-Rufai, noted in his book titled ‘I am a Bandit’ that Mr Gide has the money and connections to procure large weapons.
“Each of these groups (Gide and others) has in its possession more than 500 AK 47 or AK 49 guns. Some of the gangs like that of Gide, Mai Anguwa and Turji also have more sophisticated weapons like RPGGS and anti–aircraft guns,” Mr Ahmed- Rufai wrote.
“Dogo Gide later forged an alliance with Boko Haram in the last quarter of 2019. Thus, from his base in the forest of Wawa in Niger State, Gide was recruiting members for this group and ensuring the group has 104 strongholds in Zamfara State,” Mr Ahmed-Rufai who teaches at the Department of History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, continued.
Mr Gide’s reign of terror has left scars on many families who have lost loved ones and resources to his brutal activities across many communities in Niger, Zamafara, Kebbi and Kaduna states.
