Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A 60-year-old building materials trader was abducted by four masked, armed men in the Monatan community of Oyo State on the night of May 2, 2026. The victim was forcefully pulled from his vehicle and taken away in an unregistered ash-coloured Toyota Corolla, deepening fears over the deteriorating security situation in the state.
According to Olayinka Ayanlade, the state Police Public Relations Officer, the abduction occurred at around 8:47 pm along the Jinarere axis of Alakia Road within the Monatan community, located in the Lagelu Local Government Area. The victim, whose identity has not yet been released by authorities, was returning home from his shop when the assailants struck.
Police operatives were swiftly deployed to the scene after the incident was reported, with the command activating "necessary operational measures" to rescue the victim and apprehend the perpetrators. The police statement assured the public that all available resources had been deployed by the state command to secure his safe release and bring those responsible to justice.
This abduction is the latest in a series of high-profile kidnapping incidents that have left communities across Oyo State in a state of heightened anxiety. Just days before, on April 23, the Oyo State Police Command announced the arrest of three suspected members of a kidnapping syndicate. The suspects—29-year-old Musa Ajibola, 63-year-old Hassan Mohammadu and 19-year-old Umaru Hassan—were apprehended on April 21 at the Latayo Farm Settlement in Ile-Igbo and subsequently confessed to their involvement in a separate abduction and ransom case.
The trend extends beyond kidnappings. On April 20, 2026, it was reported that students travelling for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination were part of a group attacked on the Ibadan-Ijebu road in a failed kidnapping attempt that resulted in the death of one person. In a similarly grim assessment, a police officer was killed and a Chinese expatriate principal officer was violently abducted from his company premises in the Ogunmakin area of Ibadan just a week prior, suggesting a high level of organisation among criminal elements.
Security stakeholders in Oyo State have raised the alarm over the dangerous trend. On April 24, a high-level security meeting was convened at the Eleyele Police Headquarters in Ibadan, bringing together traditional rulers, representatives of farming and cattle-rearing communities, and other security agencies to devise practical measures against what they described as the rising cases of kidnapping, banditry and killings. The Oyo State Government, however, has maintained that the state's security architecture remains robust. The Commissioner for Information, Prince Dotun Oyelade, stated on March 9 that the Seyi Makinde administration has successfully managed to curtail the activities of criminals through strategic security deployments and quarterly clearance operations across identified flashpoints.
The current kidnapping crisis has been linked to deeper economic drivers. An April 28 investigation revealed that an illegal lithium mining boom along the Oyo-Kwara border, generating an estimated daily cash flow of between N12 million and N18 million, is fueling the recent spike in abductions and feeding criminal enterprises in the region. Fear has also crept into the affluent neighborhoods of Ibadan. Following the recent wave of violence, security agencies advised residents to restrict night movements, with the Police Community Relations Council issuing an "Urgent Safety Alert" to residents of the Bodija, Agodi GRA and Akobo areas. Meanwhile, no group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the 60-year-old trader, and the search for the four masked men and their elderly captive continued as of press time.
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