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High military presence, massive criminality in Kaduna

Kaduna State is the most terrorised state by bandits and other criminals despite the presence of military-police formation. I must express my concern over the level of insecurity

Sir: I am afraid of military-police formation in Kaduna that cannot protect our school children and allowed bandits to control the forests.

Kaduna State is the most terrorised state by bandits and other criminals despite the presence of military-police formation. I must express my concern over the level of insecurity in the country and Kaduna in particular.

Kaduna State has the highest number of military and police formations yet they could not flush out bandits hiding in forests. Rather, we have a situation whereby deliberate acts of commission or omission and anarchy have taken over.

The people of Kaduna State today are no longer feeling the impact of several militaries and police formations around them. I cannot explain the level of high insecurity in relation to several military-police formations in Kaduna State. I am worried over what will happen if states without military-police formation have similar security challenges like the one in Kaduna. Nigerians need an explanation about insecurity in Kaduna with several military-police formations.

Military and police formation in Kaduna State include 1Division Nigerian Army Barracks; Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria; Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji; Nigerian Defence Industry (NDI); Nigerian Air Force Training School; Nigerian Police College, Kaduna; Nigerian Navy School of Armament, Kachia, Kaduna; Nigerian Army School of Legal Services, Bassawa, Zaria; Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna; Nigerian Army School of Artillery, Kachia, Kaduna; and Nigerian Army School of Military Police, Bassawa, Zaria

Despite these, no single day passes without massive killings, kidnappings, arson, and wanton destruction of property in Kaduna State. The citizens and residents of Kaduna are becoming numb to serial publications of death and destruction every day. Farming activities are being negatively impacted on a scale that will herald famine throughout the state. Even performing religious obligations is becoming difficult as places of worship are routinely targeted, burnt, and destroyed with attendant loss of lives and the military-police formations are helpless in Kaduna.

The Kaduna–Abuja Road, Kaduna–Kachia Road, Kaduna–Zaria Road, Kaduna–BirninGwari Road are all under siege of bandits and kidnappers. Businesses are daily relocating from Kaduna. Residents are helpless and go about their lives with trepidation. The military and police formation are helpless in the war against kidnappers and bandits in Kaduna State. Yet Kaduna is the state in Nigeria with the highest number of military and police formations.

Today, the breakdown of public order and public safety to such an extent requires extraordinary measures to restore peace and security. There is, in addition, a clear and present danger of further and total breakdown of public safety in the state, which requires extraordinary measures to prevent such eventuality.

Deaths from insecurity in Kaduna State in 2020 were three times higher than those recorded in five states in the North-East within the same year. The President must act accordingly to ensure that peace prevails in Kaduna.

Donald wrote from Kaduna.

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