Panic in Kwara community as gunmen kidnap woman, two children

Suspected armed terrorists on Wednesday night stormed Ahun community in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, abducting a woman and her two children during the attack.

Residents said the incident happened late at night, catching many people unprepared as the gunmen invaded the area and began shooting into the air.

An artisan in the community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the attackers arrived suddenly and caused panic among residents.

“The assailants came into the community at night when we least expected them. They were shooting, and everybody started running for safety,” he said.

“We thank God that our vigilantes stood their ground, if not for their bravery, the bandits would have wreaked more havoc,” he noted.

Very Nigerian reliably gathered that the kidnapped woman is the wife of the son of the driver of the traditional ruler of Oro-Ago, popularly known as Baba Segun.

It was further gathered that in their bid to escape, the assailants matchetted the victim’s mother-in-law, also known as Mama Segun.

Eyewitness accounts, told Journalists Thursday evening in Ilorin, that the assailants arrived at the village at 9 pm, shooting sporadically to scare “uninvited guests.”

The operation that lasted barely 40 minutes, however, prompted the villagers to attempt to leave the town en masse on Thursday.

Sensing this, another source, a member of the local vigilante group, told Very Nigerian that the traditional ruler of Oro-Ago ruled that no one should leave for that reason.

According to the local security personnel (names withheld), the monarch was quoted to have asked: “If they all leave now, on whom will I rule?”

To this effect, the traditional ruler was said to have also directed the military personnel in Oro-Ago not to allow any vehicle conveying anybody out of Ahun and Oro-Ago to go.

An Ilorin-based family member of Baba Segun also commended the local vigilantes in the area for their bravery during the encounter.

He recalled: “My family in Ahun called around 9 pm yesterday (Wednesday) that our community was under the siege of bandits.

“The first question I asked was the welfare of my aged mum in the village.”

Meanwhile, men of the Department of Security Services (DSS) in Ifelodun LGA, on Thursday invited members of the local vigilantes team and other stakeholders to a day-long meeting, the outcome of which was not known at the time of filing this report.

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