Governor Nasir El-Rufai has called for a consensus between the federal government and the 36 states governments to recruit 774,000 youths into the security agencies.
The governor also backed the call for the federal government to declare bandits as terrorists, adding that recruiting 1,000 youths from each of the 774 local government areas of the country into the security forces will help curb violent attacks in the country.
El-Rufai was speaking at a forum where he received a state security report presented by Commissioner for Internal Security and Hone Affairs, Samuel Aruwan.
The report said not less than 888 people have been killed and 2,553 kidnapped, while 720 persons were injured in the state between January and September 2021.
El-Rufai received the report in the presence of top security officers including the General Officers Commanding (GOCs) of 1 and 3 Divisions of the Nigerian Army, and Kaduna State Police Commissioner, among others.
The Emir of Zazzau, Emir of Birnin-Gwari and Agwa Atyap, and other government officials were also in attendance.
The governor said there are not enough boots on the ground to tackle the security challenges in the country.
The third quarter security report said 220 bandits have been killed and over 12,000 cattle rustled between January and September 2021. He said 325 people were killed in the state in the first quarter, 222 killed in the second quarter, while 343 people were killed in the third quarter.
Aruwan also said that 949 people were kidnapped in the first quarter, 774 abducted in the second quarter, while 830 were kidnapped in the last three months.
Speaking on the breakdown of the report for the third quarter, Aruwan said, “From July to September 2021, a total of 343 persons died due to banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals. Of this, 50 were women, and 22 were children. Southern Kaduna district records 193 deaths in the third quarter, over 56% of the total.
“This number is largely made up of victims of violent attacks and reprisals in Zango Kataf, Kaura and Nauru LGAs. These areas witnessed series of clashes early in the year, which spiraled into a succession of increasingly deadly communal and inter-ethnic attacks across the three LGAs, 114 people died in Zango Kataf LGA, and 19 in Kaura LGA in the period under review,” he said.
