Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, agreed with the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, who in his Christmas message, submitted that President Muhammadu Buhari is leaving Nigerians “far more vulnerable” than when he assumed office on May 29, 2015.

In a statement, the group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it was insensitive for the President to assert that he would retire to a ‘safe Daura’ next year when the “rest of the country is being burnt and consumed by kidnapping and terrorism among other vicious crimes.”

He said, “it is unarguable, as Bishop Kukah puts it in his 2022 Christmas message, that Buhari has endangered Nigerians more than when he came into power almost eight years ago.”

HURIWA recalled that no fewer than 53,418 Nigerians lost their lives to non-state actors between May 29, 2015 and October 15, 2022, citing data by the Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States of America.

It continued: “Kaduna, one of the worst hit, has reported damning casualties in the last eight years despite the many military installations in the North West state.

“The Kaduna State government said 1,192 persons were killed by bandits and other violent groups in 2021 while over 3,000 residents, students and travellers were kidnapped. So far, over 800 people have been killed by bandits and more than 1,200 persons kidnapped in Kaduna between January and September 2022, according to official data.

“Bandits, on 2022 Christmas Day, killed one person and kidnapped no fewer than 45 in Angwan Aku, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

“Four students of the Kogi State Polytechnic, said to be returning home from school for Christmas, were also kidnapped by gunmen along Akunnu-Ajowa Road in Akoko area of Ondo State. In Imo State, kidnappers, armed robbers and sundry armed hoodlums are on the loose, killing, maiming and kidnapping citizens.”