Kaduna admits nearly 1,000 people were killed by bandits in 2020

The Kaduna State government says the activities of bandits last year led to the death of nearly a thousand people.

The Kaduna State 2020 Annual Security Report revealed that the criminals killed 937 people during their campaign of terror that has further spilled into the current year.

While presenting the report to Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, the state's Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the bandits kidnapped 1,972 others too.

The commissioner said the highest number of people (152) were killed in Igabi local government area, followed by 144 killed in Kajuru.

He also noted that 1,461 of those kidnapped were within Birnin Gwari, Igabi, Giwa and Chikun LGAs.

The wave of criminality in Kaduna has been subjected to ethno-religious analysis but Aruwan said the pool of victims is diverse.

"Victims of criminal acts like banditry and kidnapping are to be found across ethnic, religious or political leanings and persuasions," he said.

Governor El-Rufai said his government remains committed to using its limited resources to support security forces to contain the violence.

He said the security of Kaduna communities depends on providing sufficiently for security forces to overwhelm the criminals, and repeated his calls for state police.

"There are simply not enough police officers in Nigeria and the idea of policing such a vast, federal republic in a unitary manner is not pragmatic," he said.

Kaduna is one of the worst affected by banditry in the northern region.

Official government records alone show well over 100 people have been killed by bandits since January, 107 of them killed in February alone.