Bandits have launched coordinated attacks across multiple local government areas in Kwara State, leaving a police officer dead, a pregnant woman killed, and several villagers abducted, sources confirm. The assaults, which took place in Edu, Patigi, and Ifelodun LGAs, have stirred fear and outrage in rural communities.
In Ifelodun LGA, Corporal Salisu Shamaki, a police orderly attached to a Chinese mining firm, was shot dead during an attack at the Agbonran mining site. Three other policemen remain missing. Meanwhile, in Patigi and Edu LGAs, gunmen struck villages such as Motokun, Egboro, and Chekugi in early morning raids.
Eyewitnesses say the assailants arrived on motorcycles, firing indiscriminately and taking captives. In Matokun, the raid lasted several hours; 12 people were abducted, though four escaped and eight remain in captivity. In a related incident in Chekugi, four more villagers were reportedly kidnapped.
In Patigi, a pregnant woman was shot and later died in hospital; several others were wounded in the attack.Villagers say many fled their homes in panic.
The Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Adekimi Ojo, confirmed Shamaki’s killing but said investigations are ongoing in the other areas. Local leaders called the attacks “unacceptably frequent” and appealed for urgent state and federal intervention.
