Alas, insecurity is in our backyard, come to our rescue.

Joel Oladele, Abuja

Recently, I put up a call through to my mother and after our usual greetings and mother-son prayers, she said to me in our dialect “Be praying for us o.”

The tone was suspicious and I had to ask her the need for the prayer request.  “Gunmen killed someone in Sabaja yesterday and they kidnapped 3 other people…” she said.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. I had to ask “again?”

Yes, the “again” must have been said unconsciously because that was not the first of such ugly incidents in Isin Local Government Area of Kwara State in recent times.

Kwara State, especially Isin Local Government used to be one of the most peaceful places you can ever think of. They live together in harmony and when it comes to accommodating strangers, give it to them. However, the sudden upsurge in the activities of gunmen, leading to killings, maiming and abduction of residents calls for serious concern.

Kwara is in the North Central region of the country,  it shares a long border with the Republic of Benin while it also shares borders with some other Nigerian states. Niger to the North, Kogi to the East, and Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo to the South. These are the five entry points into the state.

I’ve heard cases of insecurity challenges across many parts of the country, I never envisaged a day would come that my Local Government would constantly be in the news for such a dreadful reason.

An adage in Yoruba says “Afefe to fe to k’aso ninu ‘yara, eni wo tie sorun koma se s’afira.” Loosely  translated as: if a wind storm is so strong enough that it can remove clothes from the wardrobe, whoever is putting on clothes should be guided as he can also be stripped naked by the same wind. The issue of insecurity in the State and as a matter of fact in Isin LGA must be  swiftly attended to before it gets out of hand.

For now, I won’t go into details of the nefarious activities of these gunmen across the state, I will limit it to those that happened in Isin Local Government.

In October, 2022, gunmen abducted the traditional ruler of Owa Onire, Oba Abdulrahaman Lawal Ifabiyi, his wife, and driver. It was gathered that the victims were ambushed around Oba-Isin and Owa Onire between Isin and Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state while returning from a function on Saturday, it took the intervention of local vigilante group and other security agents to rescue them from the den of the kidnappers.

Few months after, May 2023 precisely, the non-state actors struck again. This time around, three people were reportedly abducted, while one person identified as Mr Adeyemi, a native of Pamo-Isin in the council was shot dead on Ijara-Isanlu Isin Road in Isin LGA.

One of the kidnapped victims was identified as Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the immediate younger brother of one of the prominent politicians in the Local Government and Chairman Governing Council of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

As if that was not enough, the affliction rose again last week as It was gathered that the gunmen attacked a filling station in the Sabaja area of the Iwo-Isin around 9 pm on Friday and abducted the manager and a security guard at the station as well as a cleric of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC).

The attack was said to be marked by indiscriminate gunshots as residents ran helter-skelter for their lives. Consequently, a high chief of Sabaja, identified as Chief Raphael Adewuyi, was reportedly killed by a stray bullet in his room.

The spokesperson for the Kwara State Police Command, SP Okasanmi Ajayi, further confirming the incident said, “Three people were abducted at Iwo on Friday while one man was hit by a stray bullet in his house.

“We have sent our men and the vigilante members to go after the abductors and rescue the three people, but we are yet to record success. I’m sure that the three people are going to be rescued.”

Okasanmi added that he was not sure whether the kidnappers had made contact with the families of the abductees.

Before now, some prominent traditional rulers in Igbomina land in Kwara State have expressed concern over the worsening security challenges being experienced in the area, saying that measures are being taken to check the influx of obnoxious migrants into the area.

The Olupo of Ajase Ipo, Oba Atoloye once disclosed at a meeting that the royal fathers were making moves to tackle the security challenges in their domains, saying, “We are already taking some steps to curb it.”

He said the Igbomina Traditional Council had embarked on certain steps to stem the influx of the Fulani immigrants, noting, “We have already entered into an agreement that those who have already settled on our lands are enough and that we don’t want any more of them here. If we cannot send those already here back, we would not allow any new Fulani settlers in our land.”

The Elese of Igbaja, Oba Babalola also once appealed to his fellow royal fathers to be wary of harbouring the Fulani settlers on their lands. He said they should not, because of a false feeling of population expansion, condone the influx because in the long run, the Fulanis would be the undoing of those communities.

In November 2021, even the State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, raised an alarm over the influx of cattle herders into his state causing security panic in the communities.

International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) quoted Abdulrazaq saying “Fulanis have spread into multiple villages in Kwara, with their population gradually outnumbering indigenes.”

A report by one of the leading Africa-focused geopolitical research firm, SBM Intelligence, further gave a clearer picture of the state of security in Kwara

According to the report, Kwara State, in the last two years has witnessed a disturbing rise in kidnapping for ransoms, gang clashes, conflicts between local communities, coordinated and random attacks, cattle rustling, and targeted killings; most of which have some things in common with other North Central States where Fulani militants are held responsible for the rising violence.

The report disclosed that the Fulani militants have a common pattern of operations which they seem to replicate in any area they gain entry into in other parts of Nigeria where communal clashes between herders and residents have been recorded.

In my opinion, while Fulani herdsmen are being accused as the most likely masterminds of these heinous crimes, the security agents should widen the scope of their investigations to indigenes as well as we may also have amongst the indigenes, those with criminal mindset.

Although Kwara South, especially Igbomina land is dominated by strangers, majority of whom are Fulanis, that should not take away the  possibility of having sons of the soil as perpetrators of the evil acts, thus the need for due diligence to get to the root of the matter. When you suspect the wrong set of people, the real criminals can hide under that cover to keep on with their wickedness unabated but when you treat everyone as suspects, you make the perpetrators uncomfortable.

The current situation requires consistent intelligence gathering, cooperation between local security operatives and the state police, deploying armed state actors to forests and possible hideouts, and swift arrest and prosecution of suspected criminals.

It is also important for Isin Meto traditional rulers to be on top of the game to protect the life and property of the locals. Likewise, citizens must report suspicious activities or new faces in their environment.

Various social cultural groups have since condemned the incident and appealed to the State Government to urgently give attention to security challenges bedeviling the land. One of such groups, The National Executive Omo Ibile Igbomina in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comr. Aiyedun Hammed, urged Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq to beef up  security at the various Villages in Igbomina land.

He noted that there was a need for security agencies to comb the forest to ensure some criminally-minded elements are not lurking or hiding in the community.

He expressed apprehension over the safety of the people of Igbomina land, Ifelodun, Irepodun and Isin Local Government Area of the State. adding that urgent action from security agencies is required to avoid having bandits, kidnappers and terrorists in Igbomina land.

“Iku ti’n pa oju’gba eni, owe ikilo lo’n pa fun ni.” The death that kills one’s age mate is sending a message to other people.

How can we sleep with our two eyes closed if our aged parents who need sound sleep at this stage of their lives can no longer do so? The insecurity is now in our backyard. All indigenes of Isin, home and abroad must arise and protect our land.

We appeal to the Kwara State Government whose ultimate duty is the security of life and property to come down to the Macedonia of the good people of Isin LGA and rescue us. The people in the various communities are living in fear and this, as a matter of urgency, must be nipped in the bud before it snowballs beyond control. All loopholes that these armed groups penetrate through must be closed so that Isin can again experience the usual serenity it has always been known for.