Bandits kidnap 490 in two-week rampage

CDS Oluyede

Nigeria’s worsening security crisis deepened at the weekend as bandits launched coordinated attacks across the North, abducting monarchs, worshippers, a bride, students and travellers in a 13-day wave of violence that has claimed at least 490 captives.

The Senate warned that Nigeria must urgently strengthen community-based policing structures, as security agencies struggle to contain the expanding assaults despite President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide security emergency and ongoing military operations.

From Sokoto to Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Borno and the Federal Capital Territory, renewed raids have left rural communities traumatised, with residents fleeing their homes and several victims still unaccounted for.

In Abuja, seven mourners — six girls and a 16-year-old boy — were kidnapped on November 28 at Gidan Bijimi in the Bwari Area Council.

That same day in Niger State, 24 farm workers, including pregnant women, were seized from Palaita village in Shiroro LGA.

The rampage began on November 18, when 38 worshippers were abducted during a Thanksgiving service in Eruku, Ekiti LGA of Kwara State, with three persons killed.

In Borno, on November 23, ISWAP militants kidnapped 12 teenage girls aged 15–20 from a farm in the Mussa district of Askira/Uba LGA. They were later rescued by security forces.

By November 21, over 315 persons — comprising 303 students and 12 teachers — had been kidnapped from St Mary’s Private Primary and Secondary Schools in Niger State. About 50 were said to have escaped.

On November 25, police confirmed the abduction of 10 persons in a fresh attack on a Kwara community. Five days later, the Kogi State Police Command also confirmed the abduction of two travellers.