A civil society organization (CSO), Connected Development (CODE), has revealed in a new report that over 400 people were killed and over 300 others abducted across Nigeria in June. The CSO released the report titled “Inclusion and accountability for improved public governance” on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, in Abuja. It focused on the country’s recent security incidents. While presenting the report, the chief of research and policy at CODE, Ani Nwachukwu, said 2,000 people mostly from rural communities were displaced and 120 people had injuries of varied severity.
Mr. Nwachukwu said, “We are asking the question, ‘What is needed? More funds or accountability for safer communities?’ In June alone, a total of 465 persons lost their lives mainly to violent attacks; 355 persons were kidnapped and 120 persons sustained varying degrees of injuries. About 2,000 persons suffered displacement from their homes. Over the years, Nigeria has increased military spending or defense budget to enhance its military power and improve security conditions but attacks are not subsiding accordingly, as recent trends have shown that security breakdowns are worsening despite huge budgetary provisions.”
CODE says they have been holding the government to account for 10 years.
He continued, “As a leading civil society organization, CODE is using this macro analysis report to highlight the missing gaps of accountability within our security sector, especially as scarce resources are allocated to the detriment of critical sectors like education and health, without corresponding outcomes on peace and political stability.” In the same vein, Hamzat Lawal, CODE’s chief executive officer (CEO), said his organization has been holding the government to account for the past 10 years.
He said, “For the past ten years, we have held public officials accountable and demanded that they keep their promises to their constituents by expediting timely interventions. Last year was no different. We tracked over N1.1B worth of constituency projects in 30 communities across three senatorial zones of Kaduna. Across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, via ‘Follow the Money’, we assessed the readiness of 90 PHCs to receive, store and effectively administer vaccines with the purpose of equally driving quality standardization of PHCs in Nigeria.”
Armed persons killed over 50 policemen and over 50 soldiers in 2022.
As the situation of security continues to worsen each year in the country, over 50 policemen and over 50 soldiers were killed by non-state actors in the first half of 2022. These are excluding two correctional service officials, two NDLEA officers, five officers of the NSCDC and two FRSC officials. The slain security personnel are among the thousands of people killed in the first half of 2022 with about 3,000 people killed in the first three months.
The killings spread across the country but were mostly carried out in the South-east, North-west and North-central regions. The three regions witnessed many attacks by various armed groups during the period. A total of 22 deaths were recorded in the South-east with Enugu accounting for 11; followed by the North-west where 19 police officers were killed with Kebbi State accounting for 16 deaths; no death was recorded in Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto and Kaduna, while 16 deaths were recorded in the North-central, three in the South-west, three in the South-south and two in the Boko Haram troubled North-east region.
The press says no week without killings by non-state actors.
While communities in the North-west and parts of the North-central have been repeatedly attacked by terrorists, locally called bandits, the South-east has seen frequent attacks by the ESN as well as other armed groups. It has been gathered that since 2021, there has been no week that there was no killing by non-state actors. The spokesperson of the police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, could not provide the actual number of officers killed but confirmed that the police lost many officers during the period.
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