Video of downed helicopter:
Transcript of bandit video:
[Salat]
“Here are dead bodies of Nigerian soldiers who launched an attack on us, intending to eliminate us and bring Dogo Gide to an end. But by the grace of almighty Allah, Dogo Gide is still alive. And he will never die. Here are soldiers lying dead. See them, and their aircraft.
“So repent. Repent we don’t have problems with anyone except those who attack us. Look at this aircraft by the grace of almighty Allah, it was an AK47 rifle that brought it down. Look at them all dead. You all should repent and understand. It is not our wish to kill anyone. It is our desire that everyone repents and fears Allah. The politicians that are always sending these ones to be killed should repent and fear Allah.
“For us, we will not retreat or surrender because of fighter jets or anything. And Dogo Gide whom they are aiming to kill will never die. Just look at these ones it was with these AK47 rifles that they brought this aircraft down. They just held fire on it as the aircraft was coming. The soldiers were shooting. We were also shooting and suddenly the aircraft went down. So repent and fear Allah.”
Evacuation Helicopter Crashed in Boko Haram Stronghold
The Nigerian Army has recovered the bodies of 37 military personnel killed in a bandit ambush on August 13 and a helicopter crash Aug. 14, Truth Nigeria has learned.
A Nigerian army force was ambushed by bandits on August 13 in Rafi County by a large bandit group, killing 26 soldiers, according to a Nigerian law enforcement officer speaking to TruthNigeria on background. Onyema Nwachuckwu, the army spokesperson confirmed the fatalities in statements to Nigerian media on Aug 15.
“I can confirm that there was an incident in Wushishi [County] of Niger state. Our gallant patriots paid the supreme price when they ran into an ambush staged by insurgents,” he said. “They were courageous till the end. (“Army Chief to visit Niger state after ambush on troops”) They stood their ground and defended our great country with their lives,” Nwachuckwu said. https://www.thecable.ng/they-were-courageous-army-speaks-on-soldiers-killed-during-ambush-in-niger-state
An evacuation helicopter picked up 11 deceased soldiers and 7 wounded on Aug. 14 but went down that same day, killing the 7 wounded soldiers and 4 airmen, according to the informed source. “The helicopter crashed at about 1 pm near Chukuba village in Shiroro LGA of the state according to Nigerian Airforce spokesman Edward Gabkwet, who announced the event in a statement to media on Monday.
“The evacuation- relief departed Zungeru Primary School en route to Kaduna, but crashed near Chukuba village for unknown reasons, “Gabkwet said.
“The helicopter likely went down as a result of mechanical failure or because of the load,” the informant said to TruthNigeria. On Tuesday the bandits’ released a video of the wreckage of the helicopter in a wooded area of Shiroro County approximately 50 miles west of the border with neighboring Kaduna State,” he added.
Two other helicopters were dispatched from a base in Kaduna State to investigate a crash and found the site was a stronghold of the Boko Haram insurgency as well as an area in which bandit gangs operate freely in Niger State.
Nigerian authorities have been fighting an insurgency since 2009 against Islamic State allied terrorists who call themselves Boko Haram (western learning forbidden) or Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP). However, radicalized kidnap-for-ransom gangs in Central Nigeria have claimed more lives than Boko Haram since 2015, according to the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON).
The video released by the bandits identifies its leader as “Dogon Gide,” who is an infamous chief of a bandit gang numbering over 1,000 members and believed to be the kidnapper of whole bodies of students for ransom. Gide maintains control of a large area in Shiroro County and taxes the residents in exchange for his protection, according to Sun News Online. https://sunnewsonline.com/bandits-leader-dogo-jede-weds-16-year-old-christian/?expand_article=1 According to the newspaper, the residents have no choice but to give free food and a portion of their farm produce to the bandit occupiers.
Dogo Gide presents himself as a Salafist insurgent as do the leaders of most of the 200 gangs operating in the massive forests shrouding the eastern border zone between Niger, Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina states. https://books.google.com/books/about/I_Am_a_Bandit.html?id=kM9EzwEACAAJ However, despite their claims to be religious, the bandit gangs are known to use and traffic drugs and operate brothels, according to sources Truth Nigeria has interviewed in Kaduna state. The bandits have battled the Al-Qaeda allied Islamic insurgency known as Ansaru and defeated it for control of Western Kaduna state.
The video released this week by bandit followers of Dogo Gide emphasize their Islamist loyalties this way:
“So repent. Repent we don’t have problems with anyone except those who attack us. Look at this aircraft by the grace of almighty Allah, it was an AK47 rifle that brought it down. Look at them all dead. You all should repent and understand. It is not our wish to kill anyone. It is our desire that everyone repents and fears Allah. The politicians that are always sending these ones to be killed should repent and fear Allah.”
The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja personally led the force of 34 armored vehicles and 250 soldiers to Shiroro to retrieve the bodies of the fallen Nigerian soldiers, according to the informed source. “The bandits asked for permission to set an ambush for the army group heading to the scene of the crash, but Dogo Gide ruled against it, telling them military would come with overwhelming force,” according to the source.
Douglas Burton is the managing editor of TruthNigeria.com. Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter in Plateau State.
