Global Rights in collaboration with some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to step up its security plan to tackle insecurity in the country.
Global Rights’ Country Director ,Ms Abiodun Baiyewu , who expressed concern over the continued proliferation of arms in Nigeria, made the call while presenting the 2019 Mass Atrocities Casualties Tracking Report in Abuja.
Baiyewu said that according to the report, the challenges of mitigating violence in Nigeria and the protection of its people clearly fell on the government.
She urged the government to reappraise the country’s security architecture and all institutions charged with the responsibilities of tackling all forms of violence.
“ Our tracking of casualties of conflicts, violent clashes and extrajudicial killings across Nigeria for 2019 informs that at least 3,188 lives were lost between January and December 2019 as a result of violent incidents.
“These include: gang clashes, extra-judicial killings, resource crises, kidnappings and, Boko-Haram/ ISWAP attacks,“he said.
She said that out of the 3,188, 2,707 were civilians, while 481 were state security agents, adding that for every 5.5 deaths recorded, at least 1 of them was of security officer.
“The state with the highest number of fatalities remained Borno in the North East, closely followed by Zamfara in the North West.
“There is a rise in kidnappings that suggests that ransoms have become a major source of funding for both the insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria and for banditry in the North- West,“he said.
Baiyewu said that based on available data the 10 most vulnerable states in Nigeria by the number of deaths recorded are :Bornu,728,Zamfara 450,Kaduna 280,Katsina 254,Taraba 181,Rivers 176,Benue 167 ,Niger 100 ,Sokoto 90 and Kogi 88.
Also speaking, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, observed that insecurity was more prominent in states with large land mass.
Odinkalu said that Borno , Zamafara and Kaduna state had some of the highest number of insecurity due to their sizes.
