Dogo Gide, one of the suspected masterminds of the March 28 attack on a Kaduna-bound train, perhaps, runs the biggest kidnap-for-ransom franchise in Nigeria.
His operation, which is primarily based in the country’s troubled northwest region, primarily targets government institutions, officials, schools and travellers.
Unlike other armed groups in the region, he forbids his gang members from attacking villages around the Kwiambana Game Reserve, Zamfara State, where he is believed to be hiding.
So much is his influence across the northwest that he reportedly warned other gangs to stop attacking villages in the area or risk incurring his wrath.
Local sources credit the relative reduction in gunmen attacks on rural communities in Zamfara to Mr Gide’s order – his fight is with the government. He has vowed to make the government pay and bleed.
Since 2011, various armed gangs have been operating in the country’s northwest.
But their activities snowballed after the 2019 general election when they began attacking travellers on major highways in the region, especially on the Abuja- Kaduna Expressway.
The intensity and frequency of their attacks on rural communities in the region increased. Livestock rustling, abductions and mass killings -sometimes of entire communities – were reported almost daily.
The activities of these gunmen, dubbed bandits by the Nigerian media, became so increasingly heartless that last November the Nigerian government secured the order of a federal high court in Abuja declaring the activities of the gang acts of terrorism.
But this designation did not deter the bandits. They grew bolder and stronger and started targeting military formations, including attacks on Nigeria’s premier military academy, the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
A life of violence
Mr Gide rose to prominence in 2018 after he reportedly killed Tsoho Buhari, who used to be the most ruthless and most feared bandit in the region.
Mr Gide, who used to be a protégé of Buharin Daji, killed him after an argument ensued between both men after Mr Buhari reportedly rustled the cattle of Mr Gide’s in-law.
The killing of Mr Buhari, who was so cruel that he was thought to be invincible, ballooned Mr Gide’s admiration among the gangs operating in the area.
He quickly rode on the waves of his newly found popularity among the armed gangs in the area to coordinate and expand the activities of his own gang.
But long before his encounter with Buhari Daji, Mr Gide has led a life of violence and had been radicalised by one of the most blood-thirsty Islamist groups in the world – Boko Haram.
Born in Erana District, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, Mr Gide attended the Qur’anic school of Isah Erana, a popular moderate Islamic cleric and a former chief Iman of Erana town.
It was unclear at what point Mr Gide started his criminal operations, but like the motley gangs operating in the Shiroro and surrounding area, his operation originally involved raiding villages, hijacking harvests, and rustling livestock.
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