Banditry: HURIWA Knocks El-Rufai over Report of 446 Deaths in Six Months

Banditry: HURIWA Knocks El-Rufai over Report of 446 Deaths in Six Months

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has lambasted Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State over the unending killings of innocent residents by bandits and terrorists.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement Sunday, lamented that Kaduna has become a killing field for marauders under El-Rufai’s watch, while the governor has allegedly failed woefully as the chief security officer of the state with the cardinal responsibility to protect lives and property.

HURIWA, in the statement, also expressed dissatisfaction that despite the unprecedented and callous murder of residents of the state by vicious, AK-47-wielding non-state actors, especially in Southern Kaduna, the El-Rufai government and security agencies have failed to arrest or prosecute any suspect to any logical conclusion.

HURIWA described as shocking the data released by the state government on Friday that 446 people were killed by bandits and terrorists from April to September 2022, while 985 persons were kidnapped during the period under review across the state.

“The massacre that has been going on in Kaduna under Governor Nasir El-Rufai is condemnable and shows crass failure of the governor who is supposed to be the chief security officer of the state charged with the duty to protect lives and property.

“However, the body language of the governor continues to enable the guillotine of residents of the state, particularly in Southern Kaduna which has been the most hit victim of terrorism and banditry since El-Rufai became governor,” the statement read in part.

The group recalled that the state government in 2021 had claimed that a total number of 1,192 people were killed by bandits and 3,348 abducted across Kaduna State. 

“In 2020, at least 937 people were killed by bandits and terrorists, the state government reported.

“Aside that these figures must have been doctored and reduced, yet the stark reality in Kaduna confronts any sane person. One thing is, however, certain: Kaduna is a place of sorrow, tears and blood as marauders with religious and genocidal agenda continue to hide under communal clashes to maul innocent Christians in Southern Kaduna.

“The mass graves dug under El-Rufai alone will send anyone into pains and anguish. How terrorists can have a field’s day in the state despite the heavy military presence is still unfathomable. For starters, Kaduna has no fewer than six military formations including Jaji Military Cantonment; 1 Mech. Division Headquarters, Nigerian Army, Kaduna; New Barracks, otherwise known as ‘Kotoko’ Barracks; Old Site of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna; Kalanpazi Barracks (Artillery Regiment). But the military have allegedly turned blind eyes to the despicable atrocities of terrorists due to alleged tribal sentiments,” Onwubiko said.

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