The former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has raised alarm over what he described as a fresh wave of mass killings across Nigeria, warning that many of the incidents are being underreported and increasingly normalised.
In a statement issued on Sunday via his X handle, Olawepo-Hashim cited repeated attacks in Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State, as well as other parts of the North Central region, as evidence of what he called a widening security collapse in the country.
The statement read: “I am deeply concerned by the fresh wave of mass killings across Nigeria, many of which remain underreported.
“The repeated attacks in Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State, across parts of the North Central region, and in several other locations, continue to expose what appears to be a widening and persistent security collapse in the country.
“As I have consistently observed, the true scale of killings is being dangerously underreported and increasingly normalized.
“In Kebbi, recent attacks reportedly left over 40 people dead and homes destroyed, with fears the toll may continue to rise. Similar incidents just weeks earlier claimed more lives. These communities appear to be under sustained assault, often without effective security response.
“In Kwara State, coordinated attacks across Kaiama, Edu, and Ifelodun have reportedly left dozens dead, including forest guards, yet many of these tragedies barely make it beyond local reports.
“Across the North Central region, the pattern is deeply troubling: Benue, Plateau, Niger, and Nasarawa states have all recorded repeated attacks, with hundreds feared killed within weeks.
“Taken together, these incidents suggest a humanitarian crisis that is receiving what can only be described as selective attention and dangerous silence.
“This widening gap between reality and global awareness is morally troubling. Mass killings in rural Nigeria are increasingly treated as routine statistics rather than urgent human tragedies.
“The continued activities of armed groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP, alongside expanding bandit networks, highlight deeper structural failures in security coordination.
“Equally alarming is the muted response from global institutions such as the United Nations and the African Union, despite the scale of these killings.
“This raises difficult but necessary questions: Why has the world become desensitized to mass killings in Nigeria?
“Why do Nigerian deaths no longer trigger sustained global outrage?
“And how many more must die before silence itself is treated as complicity?
“These are no longer rhetorical questions, they reflect a growing perception that global attention has become selective, and that Nigerian lives are being undervalued in the global humanitarian space.
“If this continues, we risk normalizing mass death, where tragedy becomes routine and urgency disappears.
“For now, the reality remains, unchanged: the killings continue, the numbers rise, and too many victims remain unseen and uncounted.”
