Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State says banditry and insurgency still pose a major threat to the 2023 general elections and population census if not nipped in the bud.
He made this known on Friday when he received the state’s quarterly security report presented by the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan on Friday.
According to the report, a total of 446 people were killed while 1,789 others were equally kidnapped by bandits across the state in the last six months.
The government also disclosed that 152 bandits were killed and 624 others arrested by troops in different parts of the state during the period under review.
On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was present at the presentation, insisted that the security situation in the country has tremendously improved, lamenting that the security alert issued by the United States embassy in Nigeria, has just just set the nation in panic mood and as well terrorised the citizens.
Kaduna, located in the North-West zone, has had its own share of hightened attacks by bandits and terrorists in the past five years, with several lives lost, thousands kidnapped and means of livelihood disrupted.