Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
No fewer than 28 communities in Kwara South Senatorial District have been completely deserted by their residents following a dramatic escalation in deadly bandit attacks and mass abductions, a community security group has warned. The Joint Security Watch Kwara South issued the alert on Tuesday, stating that what began with families fleeing under the cover of darkness has now transformed into a full-blown humanitarian crisis that has displaced thousands and turned once-thriving agrarian settlements into eerie ghost towns. The group’s coordinator, Elder Olaitan Oyin-Zubair, accused both the state and federal governments of downplaying the scale of the catastrophe while attempting to suppress information about the worsening security situation. He disclosed that the crisis first manifested in remote rural settlements such as Ganmu Alheri, Oloruntele, and Budo Idowu, where entire families slipped away at night carrying only their personal belongings. “We reported it. We were disbelieved,” Oyin-Zubair told journalists. “The police denied it publicly. We were cowed down and branded alarmists for stating the obvious.”
According to the security group, by the end of 2025 the situation had deteriorated beyond imagination, with at least 28 communities in Ifelodun Local Government Area alone abandoned by their inhabitants. The wave of displacement later spread to Isin Local Government Area, where residents of Oro-Ago, Omugo, Ahun, Oke-Oyan, Owa-Kajola, Owa-Onire, and Oba were also forced to flee. Oyin-Zubair explained that the recent kidnapping of a traditional ruler in the Agunjin District of Ifelodun LGA has accelerated the exodus, with entire communities along that axis rapidly transforming into ghost towns. “Farms are abandoned. Schools are shut. Markets are dead,” he said. “The same reality we warned about has become undeniable.” He further revealed that the insecurity has crippled major infrastructure projects, noting that construction work on the Owu Falls Road being built by the Kwara State Government from the Pamo-Oba junction through Oba to Owa-Onire was halted after road workers were kidnapped along the route.
The scale of displacement in Kwara State has reached alarming proportions. Based on community data, at least 20,000 people have been forced to flee their ancestral homes since April 2024, with many now living in overcrowded rented rooms in Ilorin, the state capital, or seeking refuge in Minna, Niger State, and Lagos. The Punch newspaper reported that in Motokun village in Patigi Local Government Area, the silence is now unnerving, with no laughter of children, no pounding of yams, and no farmers heading to the fields. In Lata Nna, homes sit with doors ajar and cooking pots abandoned on stoves, as if residents had stepped out briefly and never returned. A displaced farmer, Musa Sanni, who now lives in Minna, recounted how he and his family fled in the dead of night. “We used to harvest more than 50 bags of yams every season. But now, nobody can even go near the farm. If you try, you may not come back,” he said. A mother of four, Aisha Abdullahi, who now lives in Ilorin, described the terror that forced her family to flee Motokun. “They came at night, shooting. We didn’t even carry anything. We just ran. We left our house, our food, everything. Up till now, I don’t know what has happened to our home. My children ask when we’re going home, but there’s no home anymore.”
The security group’s alarm is the latest in a series of warnings about the escalating crisis. In March 2026, the Kwara South Development Forum had similarly expressed concern over worsening insecurity, accusing authorities of failing to protect residents from a wave of violent attacks. The forum noted that traditional rulers had become prime targets, with the Oniwo of Afin, Oba Simeon Olanipekun, abducted alongside his son on January 1, 2026, and the Ojibara of Bayagan Ile, Kamilu Salami, kidnapped in December 2025. Places of worship have also come under attack, with worshippers kidnapped during church services in Eruku and Omugo. The forum revealed that many families have sold their properties to pay ransom, yet several victims remain in captivity. The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) also raised an alarm, stating that several of its churches in affected communities had closed and been abandoned, with clergy fleeing their homes in search of safety.
Oyin-Zubair also accused some government officials of actively attempting to suppress information about the attacks, alleging that communities have been warned to deny incidents of kidnapping or ransom payments. “Some government officials appear jittery about writers and journalists, going as far as warning communities to deny attacks or ransom demands. We ask plainly: is silencing victims helping the situation?” he queried. “When a community is told to say ‘nothing happened’ while its people sleep in the bush, that community is abandoned twice — first to the kidnappers, then to official denial.” He clarified that his group works closely with security agencies behind the scenes, including intelligence sharing and field investigations, but insisted that transparency about the humanitarian situation is not a breach of operational security. “What is dangerous and not allowed is divulging security strategies, troop locations, or operational details. Acknowledging that a community is under siege is not the same as exposing a military tactic,” he said.
The security breakdown in Kwara South is part of a broader pattern of banditry and terrorism spreading across the North Central region. Criminal groups have established hideouts in vast forest belts spanning Niger, Zamfara, Kaduna, and Kwara states, taking advantage of porous borders and difficult terrain to launch attacks on rural communities. In January 2026, it was reported that over 22 persons were being held captive by bandits across various communities in Kwara South, with captors demanding an aggregate ransom of more than N400 million, along with food and drinks. In a separate incident, the Department of State Services (DSS) recently alerted the police to a planned plot by bandits to intensify the kidnapping of farmers in Kwara State, a move that could severely disrupt agricultural activities and worsen food security. The federal government has pledged to boost security in the state, but residents and community leaders insist that the response has been too slow and inadequate to address the scale of the crisis.
As the abandoned communities of Kwara South remain empty and the displaced wait in squalid urban camps, the question of when they might return home has no clear answer. For the thousands who have fled, the hope of returning to their farmlands and ancestral homes is fading with each passing day. The security group has called on the state and federal governments to urgently deploy more security operatives to the region and to provide adequate weapons and modern gadgets to local vigilantes who are at the front line of defending their communities. Without immediate and decisive action, more communities will be emptied, more families will be displaced, and the ghost towns of Kwara South will continue to multiply.
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