Notorious terrorist, Dankarami, who is also known as Gwaska, has escaped a bombing raid by the Nigerian Air Force with serious injuries after his hideout in Zurmi was bombarded on Saturday morning.

PRNigeria, an online news medium, reported that 16 militants of Mr Dankarami’s gang were killed by the air strike.

“A reliable and impeccable source privy to the modus operandi of the terrorist kingpin has confirmed overhearing the terrorist lamenting on the determination of the military to eliminate him and his family.

“He was also heard to have complained bitterly on the New Year’s Eve air strikes, which lasted for several hours, killing over 16 of his cohorts and destroying his newly built house as well as his enclave,” the military intelligence operative disclosed to PRNigeria.

The Air Force spokesperson, Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the air raid to PRNigeria.

“The directive of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, is that there is no hiding place for all terrorists and their supporters wherever they may remain active even as we cross into the New Year,” he told the newspaper.

A resident of Zurmi, Nura Kabiru, said he didn’t know the number of those killed but confirmed he saw the Air Force jets hovering around in the morning.

“We’ll not know how many of them (bandits) killed but I, like many others, saw the jets. Our only concern is that the bandits will now attack more rural communities in retaliation for this (air strikes),” he told Premium Times over the phone.

Dankarami, who is from the Zurmi local government area in Zamfara, is notorious for terrorising residents of areas in Northern Zamfara and Western Katsina states.

He has carried out a series of attacks on residents of the two states and he is averse to dialogue. He is one of the few terrorist leaders that didn’t accept the peace accord extended to the bandits by the Zamfara state government in 2019.