Robberies, terrorism, and community clashes resulted in the deaths of 172 people in Benue and Kaduna states within a month (March 22nd and April 22nd, 2023). Sunday PUNCH’s findings revealed the cause of the deaths. Reportedly, terrorists shot and killed Reverend Musa Mairimi, the head of the ECWA church in Buda II, Kasuwa Magani, Kajuru Local Government Area, Kaduna State, on Thursday, March 23.
April 2023:
Also, on April 15, bandits attacked Runji Village in the Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, leaving about 33 people dead and over 40 houses reportedly burnt. In Benue State, on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, one person and four others were killed when farmers attacked the Otukpo LGA and Atakpa communities, respectively.
Similarly, on April 2, 2023, gunmen invaded a church at Akenawe, Tswarev, in the Ukemberagya/Tswarev council ward of Logo Local Government Area of Benue State and killed one. An attack at Igbobi in the Apa Local Government Area of the state on April 3, 2023, resulted in the death of three people, including a community leader and two others.
On April 4, unidentified gunmen killed three individuals before another attack occurred on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, when gunmen killed 46 people in Umogidi, a village in the Entekpa Adoka district of the Otukpo Local Government Area.
Suspected herders killed 34 people who had taken refuge in a primary school in the Mgban community in Nyiev council ward, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State on Friday, April 7, 2023.
Late on Monday, April 10, 2023, invader herders attacked Guma, Logo, and Tarka local government areas, killing 25 people and injuring many others.
On Thursday, April 20, 2023, some bandits attacked farmers in Kwande and Gwer West Local Areas of Benue state, killing at least 20 people in Waya, Jato-Aka, Turan, and other villages in Mbabuande and Mbapa Council Wards.
Comments from Experts:
Addressing the increasing rate of insecurity in Kaduna State, a security expert and Managing Director of Beacon Consulting Limited, Kabir Adamu, stated that non-state actors such as bandits and terrorists were challenging the supremacy of the state.
Kabir claimed that the government had the responsibility of protecting the state from being taken over by them. In addition to banditry and terrorism, ethnic groups were responsible for attacks over land and political disputes.
According to him, the situation worsened because of the lack of willingness of the government, communities and individuals to provide security and live in peace. He said:
There are Islamic jihadists partnering with the bandits. Apart from that, there are issues of inter-communal crisis between the ethnic groups. At the centre of that matter are land disputes among them. In order to achieve their interests, each of them uses these militias to attack each other, but you rarely hear this in the media. Sometimes, all these groups engage in political violence to achieve a particular objective.”
“From the first attack in the early 90s in this cycle, there had been several commissions of enquiries and judicial commission that had been set up, and most of them have made far-reaching recommendations, but none of those recommendations has ever been implemented as a result of that desire to be politically correct.”
Comments from Security Analyst:
A security analyst, Nnamdi Anekwe-Chive, blamed the government for failing to protect its citizens’ lives.
He said, “It’s about the government not living up to its responsibility to protect the lives of citizens; otherwise, there would have been a proper security framework to counter the attacks. Normally, the State government should collaborate with the Federal government to deploy the allocated votes to combat insecurity.”
Also, a security expert, Dickson Osagie, decried the situation, noting the importance of decentralizing the policing system.
Meanwhile, Punch’s correspondent obtained the 2023 Nigeria Security Report by Beacon Intel on Friday. The Security report revealed that a total of 2,327 Nigerians were killed in the first quarter, January to March 2023.
A breakdown of these fatalities, according to the geopolitical regions, showed that the North-East suffered the highest with 787 deaths, followed by the North-West with 695 casualties, North-Central with 377 victims, South-East with 185, South-West with 167, and South-South with 116.
Speaking with our correspondent, a retired Colonel, Hassan Stan-Labo, said, “The killing of Nigerians is as a result of banditry, ongoing attacks in communities. The present government preparing to exit has never taken our security situation too seriously in the last eight years. We have a non-sensitive, nonchalant government and has not shown commitment towards taking care of the people.”
cc: Punch Ng
