On April 20th, 2023, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai cautioned that bandits could take advantage of the transition period to unleash violent attacks in Nigeria. To prevent this, he suggested that security operations against bandits be increased in the remaining days of the current administration and beyond.
Speaking at the presentation of a security report, he called for sustained simultaneous ground and air kinetic actions across the seven frontline states of the North-West zone and Niger, which had contiguous forest ranges and are most heavily impacted by the security challenge. The security report revealed that 1,266 and 4,973 people were killed and kidnapped, respectively, in 15 months.
Despite increased attacks in Benue, Zamfara, and Niger since the general elections, there has been some slight year-on-year improvement in fatalities and other incidences of criminality across Kaduna State between 2021 and 2022. Governor El-Rufai expressed gratitude to the security agencies and urged the government to continue to launch comprehensive and sustained military operations against the terrorists and criminal elements that threaten the lives, liberty and livelihoods of Nigerians.
Sources: nairaland