By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Violence in Kaduna State has always nearly brought the ancient city to its knees, but the security situation in the state lately has been compounded by increased banditry and kidnapping.
The latest of the crime is the abduction of 121 students of Bethel High School, Maraban Rido in Chikun Local Government Area of the state. The bandits, who invaded the school located on the Kaduna-Kachia highway in the early hours last Monday, also killed two security operatives.
The abduction has generated angry reactions by parents and even religious organisations, such as the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, which harped “on the urgent need to expose the attackers.”
The Baptist Church, which particularly owns the school, has called for emergency prayers in over 100 countries, even as the abductors have urged parents and guardians to procure foodstuff for their children or they be starved.
This is coming as some Kaduna residents took to the streets last Thursday to protest lack of security and regular abductions in the state. Chanting slogans, the protesters blocked a street, demanding peace.
One of the protesters claimed that no fewer than 16 persons were kidnapped the previous day.
“People are kidnapped inside town, not inside the bush. We are still mourning the Bethel school students and now this happened. What is happening? We want the Kaduna State governor to talk to us.
“We don’t want bad government again. Nobody wants bad government. We don’t want them. They should bring back our children”, the aggrieved protester said.
The timeline
For some years now, the state has been a hotbed of violence that mainly erupted from religious and ethnic profiling, as well as all manner of nefarious criminal acts.
Thousands of people have either been killed, maimed or displaced, and countless homes razed or deserted. If it is not the fight between the northern Hausa-Fulani moslems against the Christian-populated southerners of the state, it is challenge occasioned by the El-Zakzaky crisis, among others.
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Despite the devastation caused by these attacks, the Kaduna State government and security operatives have been unable to put an end to the hostility in the state.
The time-line of major attacks in the state since 2014 has been quite revealing.
In March 2014, no fewer than 100 villagers were killed in ethnicity-inspired clashes across four communities of Manchok in Kaura Local Government Area.
On January 2, 2015, it was still the turn of Kaura Local Government Area, where gunmen attacked and killed the district head of Zangang Atakar, Yohanna David Shinkut.
Less than three weeks after, precisely on January 27, Kamanton chiefdom was attacked and seven persons killed during a funeral in Kafanchan Local Government Area in southern Kaduna.
October 16, 2016, gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen attacked Godogodo village in Jama’a Local Government Area. The bandits reportedly attacked a military checkpoint in the area and unleashed mayhem on the village, killing over 40 persons.
A spate of attacks was visited on Christian-dominated Kauru Local Government Area in November 2016, leaving 45 dead and 120 houses, including eight churches, torched.
Gunmen struck in Goskan village in Kafanchan, in Jema’ah Local Government Area of the state on Christmas Eve of 2016, killing about five persons, mostly women. A part of Goskan, about five kilometres away from Kafanchan, were razed too.
Again, on February 19, 2017, militia men, in their hundreds, descended on Bakin Kogi in the Kaninkon Chiefdom of Jema’a Local Government Area in southern Kaduna, razing houses, killing seven people. They left scores of people injured.
The next day, February 20, suspected Fulani gunmen reportedly killed 14 persons in orchestrated attacks on Mifi and Ashim villages in Attakad chiefdom of Kaura Local Government Area. Women and children, aged between eight and 73, were mowed down in cold blood.
Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen attacked Bakin Kogi, a village in Jama’a Local Government Area of the state on February 11, 2018 , killing four persons.
Again, six persons were feared killed by bandits in attacks on Bakin Kogi and Kaninkon chiefdom in Jama’a Local Government Area of the state. The two attacks were launched at about 10am and 11am respectively.
On February 9, 2019, another six persons were killed in attacks in the Ungwan Barde area, and the following day, 10 others, including a pregnant woman, were killed in the same area.
On February 26, 2019, 38 persons were killed and some 40 homes destroyed in attacks on the Karamai community in Maro, Kajuru.
Ungwan Barde village in Kajuru played host to another set of bandits on March 11, 2019. Seventeen persons died and dozens of homes were burnt.
Also, 52 persons were killed and no fewer than 100 homes destroyed in attacks on Inkirimi and Dogonnoma villages in Maro, in the same local government. Victims of the attack included women and children.
On January 8, 2020, catholic seminarians- Michael Nnadi, Pius Kanwai, Peter Umenukor, and Stephen Amos were abducted by men dressed in military regalia. On February 1, Nnadi was reported killed by his abductors.
Also on that same day, the body of the wife of a medical practitioner, Philip Ataga, who had been abducted from her home in Juji, Chikun Local Government Area on January 25 along with two of her three children, was found in the bush along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.
The litany of atrocities by bandits continued on March 16, 2020 when nine persons were killed and 30 homes destroyed, in an attack by suspected Fulani militia in southern Kaduna. The victims included women and children.
On May 13, 2020, five people were reported killed and one injured as armed men attacked Makyali village in Kajuru Local Government Area.
Again, on May 25, suspected armed Fulani herdsmen attacked and killed no fewer than five villagers and displaced others in seven communities situated in the Southern Kaduna axis.
Kidnappings
Reports indicate that 178 persons were killed in seven months across southern Kaduna between July 2 and 24, 2012.
Last year, two police officers were kidnapped in what was termed ‘distinct operations’ in the state.
In April and December 2019, no fewer than 35 persons were reportedly killed in Kaduna by bandits.
The same year, some 30 persons were kidnapped in Rigasa part of the state capital by bandits and taken to a nearby forest.
On March 11, 2021, gunmen abducted 39 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka.
The Greenfield University kidnapping took place on April 20, 2021, when 20 students and two members of staff were kidnapped in Kasarami village, Chikun Local Government Area, during an attack by suspected bandits.
Police authorities confirmed the abduction and said the suspected bandits infiltrated the institution in large numbers and abducted the students, while killing one member of staff.
The kidnappers demanded N800 million ransom. Five of the students were later shot dead when the ransom was not coming. The crisis which followed peaked with a call by an Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, justifying ransom payment to bandits in exchange for the kidnapped.
A majority of them were released on May 29, after over one month in captivity.
President Muhammadu Buhari described the recurring incidents of kidnappings and killings in Kaduna State as “barbaric terror attacks.”
After the forestry college kidnapping, which ordeal lasted for about two months, Governor Nasir el-Rufai repeatedly said his government would not negotiate with “bandits” or pay ransoms.
The two major actors in the insecurity problem in the state, the socio-cultural umbrella body of cattle breeders in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), will not see any good thing in dialogue.
A July 21, 2020 statement by the Federal Government said the attacks in southern Kaduna were ‘’a result of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.’’
Fresh attacks
Only last Friday, some bandits in separate attacks, invaded Warkan village in Zango-Kataf Local Government Area and Kakkau village in the hotbed Chikun Local Government Area, of Kaduna State, killing 10 persons.
The bandits, in large numbers, stormed the village in the early hours of the day, precisely at 2am and killed their victims and injured several others.
State Internal Security and Home Affairs Commissioner, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed the attack, adding that the governor had condemned the latest killings.
“The Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has condemned killings and disappearances of citizens in Zangon Kataf, Igabi, Chikun and Jema’a local government areas of the state.
“The disappearance of five youths from Kafanchan town of Jema’a LGA was also reported today by the security agencies. The governor appealed to the affected families to remain calm as security agencies are investigating the incidents,” the commissioner stated.
