Former Senator Shehu Sani, who represented the Kaduna Central Senatorial District from 2015 to 2019, has claimed that the Nigerian military killed a bandit leader known as Kachalla three times.

Bandits have been wreaking havoc in some Nigerian states, including, Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina, taking travellers and students hostage and displacing villagers from their traditional settlements.

Giving a press statement on Saturday, Edward Buba, the Defence Headquarters’ director of media operations, disclosed that military troops had neutralised no fewer than 39 bandits during a combined air and ground operation in Niger State on December 11.

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According to the defence spokesperson, Ali Alheri, a bandit leader known as Kachalla Kawaje was among the bandits killed during the operation.

Reacting to the news, the former senator curated some images and posted them on his X account on Saturday with some textual content, claiming that Kachalla had been killed three times in three years.

CLAIM: The terrorist leader called Kachalla was killed three times: 2020, 2022 and 2023.

Some of Sani’s thousands of followers have responded to the claim with mixed reactions. Some claim the military is confused, while others explain that bandits and terrorists sometimes replace their dead leaders and maintain the same name.

The tweet has been viewed by over 210,000 accounts, in addition to multiple thousands of reposts, likes and comments.

VERIFICATION: FIJ reviewed available news reports to confirm the veracity of Sani’s claim. Here is what this newspaper found: The military has killed several terrorist leaders in the course of fighting to restore peace to the affected areas of the country. In December 2020, Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna’s former commissioner for internal security and home affairs, was reported by The PUNCH to have confirmed that Nasiru Kachalla, a bandit warlord, had been killed following a fight between bandit rival gangs. This was one of the reports shared by Sani.

In mid-November 2022, Daily Post reported the killing of one Ibrahim Kachalla Gudu, a terrorist leader. This time again, Aruwan was the one who briefed journalists about the development.This was the second screenshot that Sani posted.

The latest news came from the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Saturday, stating that it had killed four terrorist leaders in a string of operations. The terrorist leaders named were Machika, Haro, Dan Muhammadu and Ali Alhaji Alheri, also called Kachalla Ali Kawaje, who was said to have masterminded the abduction of some students of the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara, in September.

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In all three reports above, three different terrorists named Kachalla were reported to have been killed. This is contrary to the claim by Sani.

CONCLUSION: The claim by Sani that one terrorist leader called Kachalla has been killed three times in three years is misleading.