By PR Nigeria
Panic swept through Kwara State on Sunday as terrorists unleashed a wave of coordinated violence, killing scores of vigilantes and abducting residents in Oke-Ode, Ifelodun Local Government Area. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) was forced to scramble fighter jets in a dramatic counter-attack to support ground troops and prevent further bloodshed.
PRNigeria gathered that the jet, deployed from a nearby operational base, provided real-time Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) cover as security forces engaged the assailants in a tense gun battle.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers stormed Oke-Ode in large numbers under the cover of darkness, firing indiscriminately and overwhelming local vigilantes and forest guards who put up stiff resistance. Disturbing videos circulating online showed bodies sprawled across the bloodstained earth, while terrified villagers fled into the bush for safety.
> “The terrorists came in droves and started shooting recklessly. We lost many people. Without the vigilantes, the massacre would have been far worse,” a resident recounted with trembling voice.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Rafiu Ajakaye, confirmed the incident, praising the heroism of local vigilantes and forest guards whose resistance prevented the community from being completely overrun. Some of the attackers were also reportedly neutralized during the firefight.
But the Oke-Ode raid was not an isolated incident. Banditry appears to be spreading like wildfire across Kwara State. In Tsaragi, Edu Local Government Area, gunmen abducted a prominent businessman from his home days after he launched a new fuel station. In Lema community of Edu LGA, two brothers were ambushed on their farmland—one killed instantly, the other critically injured.
Security analysts warn that the latest onslaughts expose the fragility of rural defense mechanisms. The withdrawal of military personnel from certain checkpoints, residents say, has left vast farming communities vulnerable to heavily armed marauders.
Experts are urging urgent reinforcement of military deployments and improved intelligence coordination, stressing that reliance on poorly armed vigilantes alone is a dangerous gamble against increasingly sophisticated terror cells.
For villagers in Kwara North and South, the cry is the same: protection—or annihilation.
PIONEER NEWS 