Presidency: Kaduna killings fuelled by politics, revenge

The presidency says the increased killings in Kaduna are motivated by politics and revenge.

Kaduna has witnessed repeated killings, with the latest being an attack on Gora Gan community in Zangon Kataf local government area on Monday night, which resulted in the death of 10 people, while several others were injured.

In a statement on Tuesday, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president, said the state 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.”

According to the presidential spokesman, the killings have been fuelled by the decision to seek revenge.

“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.