No fewer than 415 Nigerians were killed in various violent attacks across Nigeria in July, according to a report by a non-governmental organisation, Nigeria Mourn.

In its recent report, titled “Violence Incidents Report: July 2020”, Nigeria Mourn, which tracks incidents of violent killings across the country, said the cases were recorded in 21 states.

The group uses newspaper reports and family sources to gather its findings.

The latest report shows that Kaduna, Borno and Katsina had the highest number of killings in July.

The report listed the casualty figure for each of the 21 states as follows:

Kaduna – 139, Borno – 113, Katsina – 80, Kogi – 17, Nasarawa – 13, Taraba – 10, Benue – 9, Ebonyi – 8, Zamfara – 7, Plateau – 5, Edo – 2, Akwa Ibom – 2, Lagos – 2, Oyo – 1, Imo – 1, Rivers – 1, Cross River – 1, Ogun – 1, Bayelsa – 1, Delta – 1 and Kebbi -1.

In terms of perpetrators of the violence, the report states that 185 people were killed by suspected armed bandits, 123 were killed by Boko Haram/ISWAP, 67 were killed by armed herdsmen, 26 died in communal conflicts, six persons died in isolated attacks, six deaths were caused by extrajudicial killings and two linked to cult clashes.

The report also shows that 283 of the victims were civilians while 132 were security personnel.

Earlier reports by the organisation showed that 731 persons were killed in June while 356 people died in various violent attacks in May.
As the insecurity across the country continues, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, on Saturday, asked the federal government to allow citizens to carry guns to protect themselves against.

A similar call was made in 2018 by a former Zamfara senator, Kabir Marafa, that gun use should be liberalised for self-defence.

However, that view appears a minority view as it was rejected by the Senate when Mr Marafa raised it, while it has also not been considered by the federal government.