Kaduna State government has revealed that over 888 people have been killed and 2,553 kidnapped in the state between January and September 2021.
The figures are according to the quarterly security report presented by the state government.
The government also hinted that 720 people were injured during the period.
The report also showed that a total number of 343 people were killed by bandits between July and September this year alone, while 2,553 people were kidnapped by bandits in various communities across the state from January to September 2021.
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The report presented by the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home affairs, Samuel Aruwan, during an enlarged security meeting on Wednesday, attributed the deaths to kidnappings, banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals that cut across all ethnic and religious groups in the State.
Presenting the third quarter security report in Kaduna yesterday, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said 220 bandits were killed while over 12,000 cattle were rustled in nine months.
Aruwan said 325 people were killed in the state in the first quarter, 222 in the second quarter, while 343 were killed in the third quarter, totalling 888.
The commissioner said that 949 people were kidnapped in the first quarter, 774 abducted in the second quarter while 830 people were kidnapped in the last three months.
Giving a further breakdown of the report, Aruwan said;
From July to September 2021, a total of 343 persons died due to banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals. Of this, 50 were women, and 22 were children. Southern Kaduna district records 193 deaths in the third quarter, over 56 per cent of the total.
This number is largely made up of victims of violent attacks and reprisals in Zango Kataf, Kaura and Nauru LGAs. These areas witnessed a series of clashes early in the year, which spiralled into a succession of increasingly deadly communal and inter-ethnic attacks across the three LGAs, 114 people died in Zango Kataf LGA, and 19 in Kaura LGA in the period under review.
He further stated;
130 deaths were recorded in Kaduna Central Senatorial District (38% of the total), 125 of these occurred in Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Igabi, Chikun and Kajuru LGAs. Chikun LGA recorded 37 deaths, Igabi LGA 29, Giwa LGA 27, Kajuru LGA recorded seven deaths in the third quarter. The Northern Senatorial District recorded 20 people killed in the third quarter with five deaths recorded in Lere LGA.
On his part, Governor Nasir El-Rufai while sympathising with the victims of the attacks, ordered for the immediate compensation of surviving victims and relatives of the deceased.
El-Rufai also asked the Federal Government to urgently declare the bandits as terrorists to enable security forces to use maximum weapons to dislodge them from their hideouts.
