Kaduna Killings: Presidency Accuses Critics of Ignorance, Blames Politics and Cycle of Revenge for the Crises

President Muhammadu Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu has disclosed that the frequent murder of innocent citizens by various criminal groups in several parts of Kaduna state is far more complex and intricate than the critics of the present administration care to admit.

In a statement on Tuesday, Shehu revealed that the state (Kaduna) has a comprehensive security structure in place, but the complicated nature of the situation has made things difficult.

“The Presidency wishes to state that the problem of insecurity in Southern Kaduna State is more complicated than many people are willing to admit,” the statement read.

“From available records, Southern Kaduna enjoys comprehensive security deployments, including the Army, Special Forces of both the Army and the Air Force, surveillance aircraft by the Air Force and mobile police units that are on the ground on a 24-hour basis to forestall criminality and keep the peace.

“But unlike other parts of the country, the problem of Southern Kaduna is more complicated than many critics are ready to acknowledge and understand.

“From available security records, the problem in Southern Kaduna is an evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.”

“It is a situation in which one criminal group will kill a member of another criminal group out of ethnic and religious motivations, which in turn leads to the eruption of revenge and counter-revenge, thereby making the job of the security personnel deployed to protect lives more difficult,” he said.

“We note that revenge and counter-revenge only creates a circle of violence, thereby making everyone else unsafe, especially innocent people.”

He advised the people against taking the law into their hands, and urged them to report threats to law enforcement agencies.

“What is required is for the local authorities to radically improve their intelligence capabilities so that security agencies will be alerted in a timely manner to enable them forestall any planned attack,” he added.

The presidency also condemned the recent attacks by bandits in Igali, Birnin Gwari and Giwa local government areas of the state and urged security agencies to intensify efforts to address the situation.

In the past few years, hundreds of people have been killed in many communities in Southern Kaduna and critics blame the government for not doing enough to secure the life and property of the people.

Millions of Nigerians are currently displaced from their homes as a result of security crises in several parts of the country.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian senate passed a resolution demanding the resignation of the heads of the security agencies.