Some of Mr Sububu’s lieutenants are believed to have escaped the gun battle that led to his death.

Halilu Sububu, a wealthy figure with deep-rooted connections to Sahelian jihadists, was more than just a banditry kingpin in northwestern Nigeria. His reign of terror came to an abrupt end last Thursday evening after the security forces and local vigilantes killed him in a gunfight with his gang in Zamfara State. But will his death reduce rural banditry in the region?

Mr Sububu was among the earliest bandits to take up arms around 2011 to fight the alleged subjugation of the Fulani ethnic group by state actors and their agents in Zamfara. He trained other notorious terrorists, including Shehu Rekep, the infamous terror kingpin and well-connected gunrunner who had more than 1,000 men terrorising local communities in Zamfara and Sokoto States.

Mr Sububu was suspected of organising the abduction of students of Zamfara State College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences in Bakura and over 80 other people in Gora village in Maradun LGA of the state.

He also participated in the kidnapping of more than 130 students in Kuriga, Kaduna State. Another banditry kingpin, Yellow Janbros, staged the abduction, but because he was inexperienced in mass abduction, he contracted the dreaded Dogo Gide to fight the military operatives trailing his gang.