• Bandits, kidnappers unleash pain, sorrow on communities

From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja

In Kogi State, life is no longer at ease. Kidnappers and bandits have unleashed a reign of terror over the confluence state, leaving daily tale of tears, sorrow, and anguish.

It has been a series of attacks, killings and abductions across the three senatorial districts. Bandits kill and maim at will from farmlands to the forest and highways to private residences. But the Kogi West senatorial district is the worst hit by the attackers.

There are reports that more than 2, 000 herders’ camps have been mounted in various forests of the state. Foreign mercenaries allegedly from Niger Republic, Mali, Lake Chad as well as bandits driven from the North West, North East and neighbouring states, who troop into the state daily, are said to be hibernating. As gathered, the camps are the spots the bandits plan to stay in order to carry out deadly attacks.

Observers said the incessant attacks in Kogi State, according to reports, were being fuelled by its peculiar central location, bordering more than 10 states, both from the South East and South West zones.  This was reportedly coupled with the large deposits of mineral resources in the state, which attract legal and illegal mining of gold, coal and other minerals, being carried out by foreign countries and local collaborators.

It was also learnt that the unchecked influx of youth from the far north and neighbouring countries like Niger, Chad , Senegal and Mali, who troop in their hundreds into the state daily through cement trucks have really heightened the insecurity situation in the state.

It was further gathered that the high unemployment rate, especially among the youth, who are graduates roaming the streets might have made some of them vulnerable to be informants and drug couriers to the bandits in the forest.

In recent times, no fewer than 100 people have been killed by the hoodlums, including soldiers, police personnel, members of the vigilante group, and operatives of other security agencies. Many have also been maimed, while innocent girls and house wives have been raped.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Okete community in  Dekina Local Government Area,, two women, who were working on their farm, were  attacked by herdsmen, raped to stupor, killed and their bodies set ablaze.

A community leader, Akowe Akofe, had told this correspondent: “We thought we would pick them up alive when the news came to the community that Wednesday. But we got to the farm and found their corpses ripped with bullets and with burns all over their bodies.

“We are yet to establish their offences for which they were to deserve this kind of brutal killings from the herders on their own farm.”

Few days later, a soldier was killed while trying to rescue a Chinese national at a construction company in Ogaminana, Adavi Local Government Area of the  state .

A huge ransom was said to have been paid before the Chinese national was released.

Recently, Kidnappers abducted an Islamic cleric, Alfa Fasasi Ola Mejabi, and his younger brother at Oshokoshoko, along the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba Road, while conveying the corpse of the Chief Imam of Aiyegunle Gbedde  to his community for burial.

The deceased, Sheikh Musa Olorunkemi, had died in a Lokoja hospital and his remains were being taken in an ambulance when the gunmen suddenly emerged from the bush, attacked the mourners and abducted them. A ransom of N10million was said to be paid before their release.

Also in January 2025, a funeral ambulance conveying a corpse for burial was attacked by bandits. An undertaker identified as  Segun Adekoya was killed  in the process when the bandits ambushed them along Egbe–Ogbe–Ponyan Road.

The abducted were made to pay ransom before they were released.

Of recent, the Chairman, Kabba-Bunu Local Government, Dare Michael Zaccheaus, was abducted along Okene-Kabba Road. He narrowly escaped from his abductors when he fell down in the forest. His three aides were not that lucky. Millions of naira were paid for their freedom.

Also in Odo-Ape, in Kabba Bunu Local Government, kidnappers have made the agrarian community a soft target. They have raided the council many times, during which a councillor and eight others persons were abducted from their various homes in the middle of the night. A brave youth leader who attempted to rescue them was killed.

Due to incessant attacks in the community and many others, relatives of the aged who had means have relocated their loved ones to other safer places, while majority of the indigenes hardly sleep in their houses at night. They have been moving to Kabba to spend their nights and would always return to the community in the morning.

One of the painful experiences of the residents was the abduction of an 80-year old community leader, Major Joseph Ajayi (retd). The octogenarian was abducted at his residence in the middle of the night. He spent several days in the forest before he died in the hands of the abductors, despite the payment of N10million ransom by his family.

Ajayi was kidnapped on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, from his residence around 11:30pm. The initial demand of N50million ransom by the abductors was said to have lingered for long when the family could not raise the money. This resulted in his health deteriorating, as he had no means to get his medication.

It was gathered that the kidnappers informed the family that their plea for his medication to be forwarded to him would come at an extra cost, a concession that couldn’t be met by the family.

However, as soon as the abductors discovered that Ajayi couldn’t survive, they reduced the ransom to ₦10million.

His death generated a lot of reactions, as Okun Development Association (ODA), the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Okun-Yoruba people of Kogi State, expressed great concern over the level of insecurity across Okunland.

At  a stakeholders’ security summit in Kabba, headquarters of Kogi-West Senatorial District, presided over by ODA President-General, Akenson Rotimi, they expressed grave concern over the upsurge in the cases of kidnapping and banditry and charged the authorities to do more to arrest the situation.

The Olujumu of Ijumu and Chairman, Ijumu Traditional Council, Oba Williams Olusegun Ayeni, at the meeting submitted that the persistent attacks by some non-indigenous criminal elements are evidently driven by an agenda to grab the land of the Okun people and possibly to subjugate the people and said: “This must be jointly resisted.”

Following this outcry,the state governor, Usman Ododo, ordered a comprehensive onslaught to flush out  the bandits  with many arrested, while he personally visited the family of Major Ajayi to commiserate with them.

But as soon as the tension went down, the son of the traditional ruler of Oyoo-Iwaa, the community hosting the Obajana Cement Plant, was kidnapped and killed by his abductors. Two members of the vigilance group, who attempted to rescue him were also killed.

A community women leader, who was said to be passing by was abducted at the scene.

Irked by the sad episodes, the youth took to the streets of Obajana, blocking entries and exits to the community with one of them lamenting: “Our problem started when the former governor of the state in a bid to curry favours from the presidency invited the Fulani into the state when they were being driven from other places. He even threatened to depose any traditional ruler, who did not welcome the Fulani herdsmen. Now, they came in large numbers into the state and are killing our people.

“These kidnappers are in groups, wearing security uniforms, while the herdsmen are occupying our farm lands and building ‘rugas’. The state government is doing nothing about that.”

Also, gunmen riding on dozens of motorcycles recently invaded Aiyetoro Kiri, Kabba Bunu Local Government, abducted six people along with a  prominent timber contractor. They also targeted the only mobile phone charging shop in the town and carted away more than 50 phones.

The National President, Aiyetoro-Kiri Development Association, Chief Tolufashe Olusegun, described the abduction in the town as one too many in recent times. He lamented that the people of Bunu could no longer access their farmlands following frequent attacks by armed groups.

He said unless government does something urgently, his people would be wiped away from their ancestral lands. He added that the manners of operation of the bandits were always daring and brutal as they hold sophisticated weapons.

As these were happening in Kogi villages and hinterlands, the highways were not spared either. The Kogi State Vigilante Services had announced in early June the abduction of three passengers of an 18-seater Toyota bus at Aku village along Okene/Lokoja Federal highway.

An 18-seater bus, plying the Itobe/ Ochadamu Road in Kogi East Senatorial district, was also said to have been abducted.

The fully loaded Hummer Toyota bus with registration number LAM 979 LG was said to have been hijacked at Ajegwu before Ochadamu and all occupants were taken into the bush.

Similarly, some armed men, suspected to be Fulani bandits in military camouflage,  attacked an 18-seater Toyota bus with registration number Benue DAP 325 LG along the same route.

The police confirmed the hijack of another 18 seater bus along Lokoja- Obajana- Kabba highway with 17 of occupants marched into the bush

In Yagba axis of the Kogi West, the kidnappings and killings are most rampant as  a  92-year-old  first-class monarch, Oba James Dada Ogunyanda, was recently abducted from his palace in Okoloke, alongside four others. Three local hunters were also reportedly killed in the same community.

The abductors of the traditional ruler demanded N50million ransom. A sum of N30million was said to have been paid to secure his release.

In August, three policemen were ambushed and killed by bandits shortly after arriving at a checkpoint along the Egbe–Okunran–Pategi Road and their guns carted away .Two other innocent persons coming from their farms were also hit by bullets and killed.

Also, the bandits attacked Bethel Farm in Ejiba, abducted  three people and shot a bread distributor of the farm along the route between Ejiba and Odo-Eri.

This came few days after a large scale farmer was abducted in Ponyan in Yagba East Local Government Area with a ransom of N30million paid to secure the release of the victim.

In September 2025, another deadly attack occurred in Bareke community in Egbe, when heavily armed bandits launched a deadly midnight attack that left at least 27 people dead and several others injured.

The incident shook the entire Yagba district as the gunmen invaded residential houses, shot indiscriminately, and set buildings on fire.

For hours, locals were running helter-skelter as the gunmen had a field day , killing, maiming and looting property with dozens of people kidnapped. As gathered, some of the abducted persons are still languishing in the kidnapers’ den

A visibly angry Governor Usman Ododo, who immediately visited the area of attacks, linked the growing insecurity in Kogi West to illegal and unregulated mining activities and promised to curtail the illegal activities.

The governor consequently announced an immediate ban on all mining activities in the state, pending a full audit of licences and operations of miners. He then directed the Commissioner for Solid Minerals and security agencies to seal off illegal sites, warning that anyone caught mining without government approval would face prosecution and confiscation of equipment.

He also met with traditional rulers, local hunters, and vigilante groups, urging closer intelligence-sharing to prevent further attacks.

The governor, who did not relent in providing adequate security of lives and property had funded and coordinated  joint operations such as Operation Accord III, which have been deployed across flashpoints like Yagba West, Kabba-Bunu, and Ijumu, targeting bandit camps in the forests, including Ofere Forest and the Bunu axis.

He has also worked in conjunction with the office of the National Security Adviser and brought helicopter along with some hybrid forces to flush the forests of bandits and Kidnappers

Troops of the Nigeria Army, 12 Brigade  has at various times launched attacks on the bandits and in September 2025 succeeded in  neutralising a notorious bandit leader, Babangida Kachalla, who had been terrorising nearby settlements and travellers along the Lokoja–Kabba route.

In the tragic events of Wednesday, September 10, 2025, where five members of vigilante group were brutally murdered in broad daylight in separate attacks in Egbe and its environs, the governor also announced the integration of 200 vigilante personnel into the mainstream of the state civil service.

The governor said this was to encourage the vigilance group to give their utmost best in defending the state against bandits and kidnappers. He assured them that he would look into their welfare.

A security expert, Major John Ojo (retd), who spoke with our correspondent said curbing kidnappings would demand that the state government must be intensely committed to community policing, reorganising the vigilance/hunter groups with good welfare package and good monthly remuneration and ensure proper documentation of all strangers coming into the state.

He urged the government to be bold enough to stop cement trucks from parking all manners of people from the core North and neighbouring countries into Kogi State and southern part of the country on daily basis.

Also, a retired Director in one of state ministries, Ojocheneme Friday, said to curb insecurity in the state, Governor Usman Ododo must create jobs for the teeming youths.

According to Ojocheneme, most of the state ministries, agencies and government parastatals are in need of staff. He added that most of the public primary and secondary schools in the state are also grossly in need of staff. He noted that majority of the staff that migrated from old Benue and Kwara States have retired without replacements.