CLAIM: Did President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration curtail terrorism and banditry in Nigeria?
CONTEXT: The outgoing President in his speech on 28th May, 2023 said, during his administration the federal government has been able to curtail terrorism and banditry in the country.
He said, “As I complete my term in office, we have been able to reduce the incidences of banditry, terrorism, armed robbery and other criminal activities considerably.”
VERIFICATION: When President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn into office in 2015 to begin his first term and in 2019 following his re-election, his three-point agenda was to tackle insecurity, improve the economy and curb corruption. While terrorism has been considerably put under check in the North East, the government has not been able to decimate banditry in the North West and analyses show that the security situation in the country has generally worsened despite trillions of naira spent on security.
At least 54,948 people have been killed in Nigeria due to violent acts, within seven years from May 2015 to May 2022 under President Muhammadu Buhari, data from the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST). The Council on Foreign Relations, which collates the data describes the data as a conservative estimate, based on numbers reported by the press.
By implication, it means that at least 21 people have been killed every day during the period. While deaths attributed to Boko Haram have dropped, by some accounts, up to 90 percent, other violent actors have kept the death rate increasing. Bandits have increasingly become brazen in kidnapping and killing innocent Nigerians, as well as the activities of unknown gunmen in the South East as well as herder/farmer clashes in the North Central part of the country.
VERDICT: Party True
CONCLUSION: Based on the available and verifiable data, findings by CDD fact checkers show that at least 54,948 people have been killed in Nigeria due to violent acts, within seven years from May 2015 to May 2022 under President Muhammadu Buhari. Therefore, CDD fact-checkers can confirm that the claim made by the former president is partly true.
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