No fewer than 1,192 citizens of Kaduna State have been killed and 3,348 kidnapped by bandits in 2021, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said.

El-Rufai also confirmed that 891 persons were injured and 13,623 animals rustled between January and December 2021 across the state.

The governor revealed this at the weekly media briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the state government had so far spent N21 billion on logistics support to security agencies fighting bandits in the state in the last seven years.

According to him, the activities of bandits in the North-West zone are far more serious than insurgency in the North-East part of the country.

He noted that the number of people killed, kidnapped or injured as a result of the activities of the bandits in Katsina and Zamfara states were three times more than the affected citizens in Kaduna.

“I am persuaded that the banditry in the North-West is far more serious than Boko Haram both in terms of the numbers of the people affected.

“I have shown you the numbers in Kaduna. I can assure you that the numbers in Zamfara and Katsina are up to three times this if they are keeping taps. The numbers in Sokoto, Niger and Kebbi states will be about this.

“We are talking of tens of thousands of people getting killed, getting kidnapped. It is far more serious than Boko Haram.

“The only thing is that these guys don’t occupy territory, they are in the forests and ungoverned spaces.

“So, they do not attract the kind of single-minded attention that Boko Haram does. And because Boko Haram’s ideology is religious, intentionally religious, it elicits more passion but really, this is a far more serious problem.

“Because, this is a situation largely in which people of about the same ethnicity, same religion are killing each other, stealing each other’s property, creating an industry out of criminality.

“It’s very, very serious and it requires single minded attention.’’

El-Rufai, who stated that the locations of the bandits operating in Kaduna and other neighbouring states are known to the state government, called on relevant security agencies to urgently check the activities of the terrorists.

He, however, urged the Federal Government to provide more sophisticated weapons to security officials to enable them neutralise the bandits and other terror elements across the country.

El-Rufai stated that the logistics support being provided by the state government was aimed at complementing the effort of the armed forces and other security agencies towards finding solutions to the security challenges troubling the state.

The governor also revealed that the state government in the last seven years had also spent N10 billion on purchases of technological gadgets and communication equipment to boost the fight against terror elements and other criminals in the state.

The Star