Sad: Nigeria Police continue VIP duties as bandits, terrorists kill over 269 in April

The Nigeria Police has continued to assign cops to VIPs, including entertainers and businessmen, for personal security, despite the rising insecurity in the country and an order that such escort duties should stop, Saturday Punch has learnt.

While checks by Punch showed that at least 269 people, including security agents, were killed by bandits and terrorists in April alone, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said on Friday that no fewer than 323 persons were killed and 949 kidnapped by bandits in Kaduna State alone in the last three months.

Saturday Punch arrived at the figure of 269 persons killed in April alone, by collating figures from several reports published by five national dailies in the month.

However, the figure does not include persons killed in communal clashes, by armed robbers and cultists.

The killings, news reports showed, mainly took place in Kaduna, Benue, Zamfara, Borno, Nasarawa, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra, Niger and Yobe states.

The police had on October 22, 2020, ordered the immediate withdrawal of policemen from VIPs except senior elected officials and government functionaries due to the low number of police personnel.

However, checks by Saturday Punch showed that the order was only obeyed partially and for a short while.

The Police Service Commission had said in 2018 that over 150,000 policemen were attached to VIPs and unauthorised persons in the country, and the number of policemen in the country estimated at 370,000.

This means about 40 per cent of the personnel in the Nigeria Police are attached to VIPs.

-Punch