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CML Report: With 174 Cases, Kaduna Tops States With Violent Deaths In First Quarter Of 2021

According to the Civic Media Lab, about 62 people were killed in the state in January, followed by 71 and 41 in February and March.

No fewer than 174 violent deaths were recorded in the first quarter of 2021 in Kaduna State, the highest of such deaths in the country this year.

This was contained in a tally by the Civic Media Lab, a nonprofit organisation based in Lagos that works in the intersection of media and technology for civic engagements.

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The deaths in the state were mainly caused by gunmen or bandits that pillage, kidnap and kill people, mostly rural dwellers in the northwestern and north-central part of the country.

According to the Civic Media Lab, about 62 people were killed in the state in January, followed by 71 and 41 in February and March.

Overall, Kaduna is devastated by insecurity, ranging from mass abductions to ethnic-motivated killings between the nomadic Fulani herders and indigenous landowners.

The governor Nasir El-rufai once acknowledged to have paid off the Fulani militants to stop the killings, but such overreach by the governor has not yielded any positive results. Instead, it had emboldened the Fulani militants for more wanton killings and destruction.   

Another state that has continued to witness deteriorating insecurity is Zamfara, where bandits, made up mainly of Fulani militants, have turned the state into kidnappers' heaven.

Hundreds of students were kidnapped in the state in one fell swoop as such similar mass abductions have recently taken place in Katsina, Niger and Kaduna states.

According to a tally by the Civic Media Lab, nearly 600 people have been kidnapped in Zamfara this year, with more than half of the abductions happening in February, according to a tally by the Civic Media Lab, which compiled the figures from news stories.

All in all, insecurity has distressed Nigeria in the first quarter of the year, with nearly one thousand people being murdered by bandits, kidnappers, herders, ethnic militants and security agents.

Rampaging Fulani herders have continued their killings undisturbed in several parts of the company, murdering and displacing hapless farmers in isolated rural communities.

However, a new security threat has emerged this year in the country's southeastern part, where unidentified gunmen are murdering police officers.

The targeting of police officers has been blamed on Eastern Security Network, a militant outfit set up by the renegade leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to protect the former Biafra territories against the invading Fulani militants.

While Nigerians grapple with bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, Fulani herders, ethnic militants, their president, Muhammadu Buhari, is currently receiving state-of-the-art healthcare in London, the United Kingdom.

But his defence minister, Bashir Salihi Magash, has told Nigerians not to "be cowards" and stand up to armed bandits.