Presidency rejects Atiku claim of 5,091 killings, cites 13,000 terrorists eliminated, thousands rescued
The Presidency has rejected former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s claim that the reported killing of 5,091 Nigerians in violent incidents over three months constitutes an indictment of President Bola Tinubu’s government. It insisted that security agencies eliminated more than 13,000 terrorists and rescued thousands of citizens in the same period.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, responded to a statement issued by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu. Atiku had described the security record as “soaked in blood” and cited the death toll, drawn from SBM Intelligence data, as grounds for the government’s removal.
Ajayi said official figures showed that security agencies killed between 13,000 and 20,000 terrorists in the last three months and rescued at least 10,000 Nigerians across the Department of State Services (DSS), the police and the military. He argued that Atiku deliberately ignored those outcomes in pursuit of what he called “a politics of despair.” He pointed to the recent rescue of 308 people abducted in the North-Central region, including victims from Kwara and Niger states, as one example among many daily operations.
Ajayi further stated that the armed forces continue to eliminate terrorists, disrupt logistics networks and arrest informants. He described Atiku’s focus on fatalities without acknowledging operational successes as an attempt to sow fear and despondency for political gain. He projected that Tinubu would win the 2027 election decisively, citing progress against insecurity and insurgency.
Atiku had linked the death toll to fiscal indiscipline and poor implementation of security budgets, arguing that troops cannot perform without adequate resources. He welcomed the recent military pay rise but said salaries alone would not solve frontline challenges. Force spokesperson Ani Iniedu separately disputed the scale of the figures, saying available intelligence data pointed to a reduction in violent crime over the past six months.
The exchange illustrates a familiar contest over security metrics. One side emphasises civilian fatalities as evidence of failure; the other emphasises terrorists neutralised and citizens recovered as evidence of progress. Both sets of numbers can coexist. The political argument turns on which figures are treated as the primary measure of performance and whether the scale of violence remains compatible with claims of stabilisation.
