The purported arrest of terror kingpin, Bello Turji has been dismissed as false by the Defence Headquarters in Nigeria.
The rebuttal comes after it was reported in some section of the media that troops of Operation Fasan Yamma in the North West had taken the wanted criminal into custody on Tuesday.
But the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba in a statement, urged the general public to disregard the news.
Mr. Buba in the statement declared that “All news regarding the arrest of Bello Turji by troops should be treated as fake news, please.”
This was also corroborated by a counter insurgency analyst in Lake-Chad, Makama Zagazola.
He said the alleged arrest of Bello Turji was false and misleading.
However, a statement shared by Zagazola Makama on X on Tuesday, clarified that an audio recording circulating online, in which two individuals claimed that Turji had been captured, is entirely baseless.
“The purported audio recording, in which two individuals are heard claiming that Bello Turji has been captured, is misleading and lacks any credible basis. We urge the public to disregard such unfounded rumors,” the statement read.
The statement said that Bello Turji remains at large, stressing that security forces are intensifying efforts to locate and apprehend him.
“Bello Turji remains at large, and from the last check, security forces are intensifying efforts to locate and apprehend him,” it statement concluded.