At least 1,192 people were killed, and another 3,348 others abducted in the last 12 months in Kaduna state.
This was disclosed in a security report released on Tuesday by the Kaduna State government.
The report was submitted to Governor Nasir El-Rufai by the State Commissioner for Internal Security Samuel Aruwan at the Sir Kashim House.
According to the report, men accounted for 1,038 of the fatalities, while women constituted 104 and minors 50.
A breakdown of the figures shows that Birnin Gwari LGA recorded the highest fatalities of 179, followed by Giwa LGA 173, Chikun LGA 160, Igabi LGA 144 and Kajuru LGA 44.
Kaduna Central Senatorial District recorded 720 deaths from banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisal attacks. Southern Kaduna Senatorial District accounted for 406 deaths (about one-third of the total), largely due to communal clashes and banditry.
The report further revealed that stoked by intermittent incidences of banditry, the clashes spilling out of Atyap Chiefdom as earlier highlighted, accounted for 186 deaths recorded in Zangon Kataf LGA, 59 in Kauru LGA, 48 in Kaura LGA and 33 in Jema’a LGA.
The Northern Senatorial District recorded 66 fatalities from banditry and violent attacks during the period under review.
On the other hand, kidnappers seized 3,348 people in 2021, with Kaduna Central Senatorial District accounting for 2,771 cases. About 2,449 were kidnapped within Birnin Gwari, Igabi, Giwa and Chikun local government areas, the report said.
Two local government areas from the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District – Kachia and Kagarko – recorded the kidnap of 298 persons, mainly around the highways traversing the areas.
Of the total number of people kidnapped across the state in 2021, 985 were women and 340 were below the age of 18.
– Nine persons kidnaped daily –
In his remarks, El-Rufai lamented based on the 2021 report, an average of nine persons were kidnap daily by bandits across the state in 2021.
He urged the federal government to create a theatre command similar to the situation in the Northeast to confront the insecurity affecting five states in the Northwest.
“Kaduna State Government appeals to the Federal Government to create a Theatre Command similar to the situation in the North-East to confront the insurgency that has clearly emerged in five states of the North-West and Niger State with continuous and contiguous forest ranges,” he said.
El-Rufai said the theatre command “will enable holistic approach to counter-insurgent operations across the six affected states and the enhanced coordination of the resources of the Armed Forces, the Police, the SSS, our respective State Vigilance Services, hunters and other local volunteers to fight the insurgents.”
He said there was an escalation in the number of persons killed by a whopping 255 compared to those sadly killed by banditry and criminality in 2020 in spite of the best efforts in supporting the Federal security agencies to bring an end to the phenomenon.
