Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The founder of Word Assembly Ministries in Kwara State, Evangelist Isaac Omolehin, has appealed to both the Federal and Kwara State governments to urgently deploy adequate security to his camp so that over 100 vulnerable, displaced residents can safely return, nearly four months after police ordered a midnight evacuation triggered by an imminent bandit attack.
The camp, located in Ilorin, has remained completely deserted since the night of May 30 into May 31, 2026, when police officers rushed to the facility in the middle of the night to warn of an impending kidnapper raid. According to accounts provided by Omolehin and detailed in a statement issued on Friday by his spokesperson, Grace Edema, police ordered an immediate evacuation of all occupants shortly before midnight. Although Omolehin was away at the time, bandits did arrive at the camp shortly after the panic-driven evacuation, only to find the facility empty.
“The police came to my camp in the middle of the night and asked everybody to run because kidnappers were coming to attack me,” Omolehin said. “The whole camp was deserted, and it has remained deserted. They came, the bandits, but they didn’t meet anybody.”
Prior to the raid, the camp housed orphaned children and staff, and operated a primary school, a secondary school, a hospital, an old people’s home, and a rehabilitation centre for women with mental health challenges rescued from the streets alongside their children. All operations have collapsed. “Bandits chased us out of that place. The school cannot open, the hospital is not functioning, and the patients and nurses all ran for their lives,” Omolehin said. More than 100 residents remain scattered across various locations because security agencies have not declared the area safe for their return.
The human cost of the displacement is borne most heavily by Omolehin and his immediate family. Since that night, the cleric, his wife, and his children have been forced into hiding, constantly moving between locations to avoid targeted attacks. “I have a house I can’t enter. I have a car I can’t ride. I have to hide myself from the public. If I sleep here today, I’ll sleep somewhere else tomorrow. I’m homeless with my wife and children,” he lamented.
Omolehin said he has written repeatedly to the police, submitted reports to the Department of State Services, and contacted the Kwara State Ministry of Social Welfare, which oversees orphanages and rehabilitation centres. He said he has received no official clearance or response regarding when it will be safe to resume operations. “We wrote to the police because they were the ones who asked us to leave,” he said. “We asked if it was safe for us to return because schools had resumed and we have over a hundred children that need to go to school. There has been no response.”
The cleric believes the threat is part of a wider campaign against him. He disclosed that just three days after the Kwara camp was targeted, armed men attacked his ancestral village in Kogi State, killing several people. He believes the attackers turned on his village after failing to find him at the ministry’s facility. “When they missed me here in Kwara, they went to my village and attacked my people,” he said.
While the primary threat remains violent kidnapping, opportunistic local thieves have taken advantage of the deserted property to loot electronics, fans, and mattresses. “The kidnappers did not destroy our buildings; the structures in the camp are still intact. However, a few days after we evacuated, thieves began breaking into the camp and carting away our belongings,” Omolehin said. “Those were different criminals. The kidnappers did not come to steal refrigerators, fans or mattresses. They came for human beings.”
The attack on Omolehin’s camp is part of a broader pattern of banditry and kidnapping that has destabilised Kwara State and the wider North-Central region in 2026. In February, at least 308 people were abducted in separate attacks across Kwara and Niger states. In May, gunmen killed three worshippers and abducted 15 others during a night vigil attack at Ori-Oke Ajaiye in Kwara State. In the same month, suspected bandits attacked a police station and a traditional ruler’s palace in Kwara, abducting 25 people. In June, five of eight worshippers abducted from an ECWA Church in Omugo, Irepodun Local Government Area, were reported killed in captivity, including the wife of the church minister. The pattern reflects the persistent threat posed by armed groups operating across the state’s forests and rural communities, particularly in Kwara North and Kwara South.
The Federal Government has taken steps to strengthen security in the state. In July 2026, President Bola Tinubu approved the establishment of a new Army battalion in Kwara State as part of efforts to intensify the fight against banditry, particularly in communities affected by rising cases of kidnappings and bandit attacks. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq commended the President for the swift response to his distress call, saying the new military formation would significantly boost security response to the threat of banditry and terrorism. The Governor has consistently described banditry and terrorism as not just a national security challenge but a big threat to food security, because the most affected areas are among the country’s farming belts.
Despite these interventions, Omolehin said the situation on the ground has not improved enough for him and the residents of his camp to return. He appealed directly to the Federal and Kwara State governments to restore security so the displaced can go home, noting that some of the orphaned children in his care had been referred to the facility by government authorities. “I want to appeal to the government to improve security so that I can return to the camp with my family and all the people I look after. Some of the children in the orphanage were brought to us by the government. Even if they say they don’t care about the rest of us, what about the children they entrusted to us?” he asked.
The cleric’s plight underscores the broader challenge facing thousands of displaced persons across Nigeria’s North-Central region, where banditry and kidnapping have forced communities to abandon their homes and livelihoods. For Omolehin, the camp was not merely a residence but a refuge for the most vulnerable members of society, and its closure has scattered a community that depended on it for education, healthcare and shelter. Until the government declares the area safe and provides the security he has requested, he and the more than 100 residents he once cared for will remain in limbo, unable to return to the place they once called home.
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