Despite 3,125 killed by bandits in 2021, Lai Mohammed says Buhari made ‘tremendous progress’

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that his principal, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), made “tremendous progress” in the fight against banditry and insurgency in 2021.

He stated this in Lagos on Thursday at a press conference to showcase the “achievements” of the Buhari regime during the outgoing year 2021.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that no fewer than 3,125 innocent persons were killed and 2,703 abducted by bandits in northern Nigeria in 2021, according to figures obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ an American think tank as well as quarterly reports released by the Kaduna State Government from January to September.

But despite the alarming number of innocent lives killed by bloodthirsty bandits and marauders ravaging the northern part of the country and kidnappers ubiquitous in both the north and the south, Mohammed said the President achieved some feats in the insecurity war.

The minister said, “This Administration, in spite of daunting challenges, made tremendous progress in 2021 in fighting insecurity, growing the economy, reforming the oil sector to spur more investments, emplacing world-class infrastructure, providing a social safety net for the poor and most vulnerable in the society and also taking advantage of the huge opportunities offered by the Information and Communications Technology Sector.”

Mohammed, on behalf of the Buhari regime, thereafter appreciated Nigerians for their perseverance in the face of the security challenges plaguing the nation.

“We want to most sincerely thank all Nigerians for their support and perseverance. We want to reassure the nation that President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to leave a legacy of a safe,
secure and prosperous nation,” he said.

Earlier, Mohammed said over 1,000 terrorists were crushed by soldiers in the volatile North-East zone which has been suffocated with the Boko Haram war for years, noting that over 2,000 civilians were rescued and over 22,000 terrorists surrendered.

The minister said that military operations in the North-East zone also resulted in the neutralisation of over 700 bandits, arrest of over 400 bandits, the rescue of over 1,000 civilians and recovery of over 3,200 livestock.

Buhari changed his service chiefs in January 2021 after the nationwide clamour for the injection of fresh blood and tactics against insecurity in the country but still, many Nigerians are unimpressed with their performances in the last 11 months. Many citizens are also disappointed in the regime of the President, who rode to power on the heels of combating the security challenges plaguing the country in 2015 but the situation seems to have been aggravated in the last six years.