Buhari rode to power on the promise of solving Nigeria’s security challenges, economic issues and corruption problem.
However, a tally by Sunday PUNCH shows that at least 11, 420 Nigerians including security personnel and civilians have been killed by bandits, terrorists and herdsmen in the last six years.
The figure on the killings was obtained by a manual tally by one of our correspondents and the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank.
Statistics were also sourced from the BBC, SBM Intelligence and Amnesty International.
The report on killings, however, does not include assailants and persons killed by security personnel. The figure also does not include persons killed on a large scale by security personnel like the 236 Internally Displaced Persons mistakenly killed by the Nigerian Air Force killed in Rann, Borno State in January 2017 or the 300 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria who were allegedly murdered in 2015.
Also excluded from the report are persons killed by robbers, cultists or lost to communal clashes.
Victims of electoral violence are also not included in this report, indicating that the total figure on killings under Buhari could be double if all murders across the country are added.
Sunday PUNCH reports that between May 29, 2015, when Buhari took over, and December 31, 2015, at least 2, 791 persons were murdered by Boko Haram, herdsmen and ‘unknown gunmen.’
In 2016, the figure dropped to 1, 460 based on a renewed offensive by the military which led to the killing of over 400 assailants and the rescue of over 500 hostages.
The casualty figure of unarmed civilians continued to drop into 2017 where 900 persons were killed by mainly Boko Haram but the shape of insecurity began to change gradually due to killings by herdsmen.
By 2018, the killings by herdsmen increased while the Boko Haram attacks dropped relatively. The activities of bandits in Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna caused the casualty figure to rise to 2, 419.
Sunday PUNCH observed that the killings by herdsmen continued while banditry became a more common feature in media reports in Nigeria. About 2, 371 were killed by bandits, terrorists and violent herdsmen in 2019.
In 2020, about 3, 176 persons were killed mostly by bandits and herdsmen. In 2021, however, abductions became more common than killings as over 1,000 students were kidnapped between January and July. As of July 31, 2021, no fewer than 1,094 persons had been murdered by bandits and terrorists, bringing the total to 11, 420.
The states mostly affected by the insecurity include: Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Benue, Borno, Adamawa, Sokoto, Katsina, Taraba and Plateau.
