Worsening insecurity in Southern Kaduna: Presidency reveals cause

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The presidency on Tuesday said the worsening security problems in Southern Kaduna is as a result of revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.

The Presidency stated that the problem of insecurity in Southern Kaduna State is more complicated than many people are willing to admit.

A statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) to the President said from available records, Southern Kaduna enjoyed 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.

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

The Presidency advised the people against taking the law into their own hands which made the job of security personnel more difficult, saying instead, they should report any security breach or threat to peace to the law enforcement agencies.

According to the Presiddency, what was required was for the local authorities to radically improve their intelligence capabilities so that security agencies would be alerted in a timely manner to enable them forestall any planned attacks.

The Presidency in the same manner condemned the recent attacks by bandits in Igali, Birnin Gwari and Giwa local government areas of the State while urging security agencies to intensify their response.