Apart from its sobriquet as a state of harmony, Kwara State is regarded as one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria. For many indigenes and residents, the ‘low’ crime rate compared to what is being experienced in other parts of the country where insurgency, cattle rustling and kidnapping thrive can be traced to its rich religious history and heritage.
To this end, there is a popular slogan about the state capital, Ilorin, as “Ilu to jina sina to suma Alijana’ literally translated as a town that is far from hell and closer to Paradise. Last year, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Baba Alkali, during a visit said Kwara remained one of the most peaceful states in the country.
But Kwara has had its share of crime activities lately with some odd and strange incidents that are not in tandem with its “religious status”.
From the activities of ritualists, cultists, kidnapping, rape, incest and armed robbery among other wierd happenings, the state has found itself on the edge with very disturbing tales. Communities have been under siege owing to the activities of burglars and gangsters. The disturbing situation has put residents in a constant state of fear and anxiety. The worrying situation manifested recently when an abandoned scooter at Pakata area of Ilorin West Local Government left the community in serious panic and fear for several days only for the owner to surface later that he ran out of fuel.
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Successive police commissioners posted to the state had decried cultism and kidnapping as a major issue which is antithetical to the state’s religious and moral expectations but the trend has assumed different dimensions.
Recently, was the news of the “killer” doctor, Abass Adio Adeyemi, who was paraded by the Kwara State police for allegedly killing six of his victims for organ harvesting put the state in global limelight. Same goes for Olajide Blessing Omowumi, a 300-level student of the University of Ilorin, who was raped to death by her assailants in a gruesome manner before they were convicted and handed various sentences ranging from death by hanging and life imprisonment by Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court.
Between March and May, last year, over 12 persons were reportedly killed in cult-related clashes in various parts of Ilorin metropolis.
Parents and authorities have expressed concern over the activities of the cult groups, which Daily Trust observed, have been infiltrated by primary school pupils, artisans and members of other vacations including many youths. Worst hit areas are Baboko, Emir’s road, Adeta, Agbo-Oba among other places in the metropolis.
On April 2, 2023, many people were injured with no fewer than 25 vehicles destroyed when youths from Odo Popo and Itamerin communities clashed over one Aisha, a JSS 2 student who the two leaders claimed to be their lover. The DPO of G Division, Oloje, Dare Afonja, who confirmed the incident, said he was not in a position to give further details.
In January 2023, a self-acclaimed Islamic cleric, Muhammed Murtala, was remanded by Magistrate Gbadeyan Kamson after allegedly absconding with N30 million jewelry of one Muslimat Ayoku Fagbemi despite ‘fraudulently’ collecting N300,000 to cure her of a leg disease.
Deaths from kidnapping
From the southern end of the state, the narrative of kidnapping for ransom climaxed with the recent death of the brother to Ambassador Olutola Onijala, an ex-aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, whose corpse was already decomposing in the forest before it was located by local hunters in Isin Local Government Area.
The victim, Adegboyega Onijala, a fish farmer, was kidnapped on his way back from Olla community last year and later killed after collecting ransom from his family. The kidnapping of the APC women leader in Koro ward of Ekiti Local Government Area shortly after was equally deadly. The victim, Mrs Oluomo Sunday Abolaji, was killed in Ejiu, Obbo Ile and Osi forest during crossfire with the kidnappers in a rescue operation by the police to release seven other abductees.
Cultists, ritualists on the prowl
From the celebrated case of Blessing Omowunmi Olajide, the University of Ilorin undergraduate who was raped to death, residents woke up to discover a severed head of a student of Kwara State Polytechnic placed under the popular post office flyover in late 2021. A week after the severed head was discovered, another suspect was hacked down along Offa Garage Road, Ilorin, believed to be a reprisal attack by members of rival cult groups. Up till now, security agencies or the families of the deceased are yet to find out what happened to the body.
As if that was not troubling enough, the floating corpse of another victim was found by residents of Asa River along Taiwo Isale area, Ilorin, with his head covered with a black nylon. The mystery behind the death is yet to be ascertained and no clue whatsoever on the circumstance that led to the terrifying incident.
On May 15, 2021, the operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) stormed a river bank at Ayegbami/Dada area, Ilorin, and arrested six suspected cultists “preparing to launch a deadly operation”. This was after another suspected cultist was gunned down at Adabata/Agaka junction, Ilorin, and his assailants, in a picture that was widely circulated in the social media waited to ensure he breathed his last before they disappeared.
While fielding questions from newsmen during a parade, a leading suspected cultist, Tijani Abdulfatahi, 26, confessed he killed three persons to gain promotion as a member of Eiye Confraternity. Tijani, a 500-level dropout of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Ilorin, said he joined the group in 2019 following low academic performance.
In Offa Local Government Area, on September 25, 2021, one Alade James of Alawe compound, Offa, was also arrested while burying the corpse of a 9-year-old girl, Faith Samuel of Onireke area, after killing her for ‘rituals’. The corpse was recovered with a N1000 note buried with it. The police on March 17, 2022, arrested another suspected ritualist who “appears to be mentally unbalanced.
Government’s response
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq recently donated 10 new patrol vehicles to the Operation Harmony tactical team, a combined security outfit under the command of the police to “help strengthen the security of lives and properties and build confidence within the business community. The government said this was the third in the series of such interventions. The Commissioner of Police, Paul Odama, who received the vehicles, said, “The command will help to keep the state as one of the most peaceful in the country presently.”
Concerns
The Kwara State chairman of the National Hijrah Committee, Prof. Lanre Badmus, attributed the situation to the influx of “foreign elements”.
“The regime of Babatunde Fashola in Lagos saw many Kwarans driven back home and coupled with security crises in some parts of the country that forced people down here because of its peaceful nature.
“They brought their characteristics to Kwara and they lacked the orientation we Muslims have. They aided crime as a result of desperation to survive after losing their means of livelihood.
“It is therefore the responsibility of religious and political leaders to address the problem frontally through enlightenment and raising the banner of our morality and spirituality otherwise they will turn the state into a jungle. Every Kwaran should become a member of security just like in America,” he added.
A former Secretary of CAN in Kwara, Rev Cornelius Fawenu, told Daily Trust that “Kwara status as a safe haven is going down and calls for everybody’s concern. This situation needs all of us to jettison partisanship and call out the patriotism in us to address the issue frontally and answer the obligation of our callings from the government, community leaders, security operatives, traditional rulers and spiritual leaders to work together to arrest the ugly situation. Although perpetrators may be intruders, they may have links with the local people.
“The families of the perpetrators worship in one church or mosque. That is why we should focus on preaching on moral rearmament rather than economic prosperity to put the fear of God in the hearts of the people. It is high time we held a summit on our security challenge. Kwarans are peace loving and the government must rally all the relevant stakeholders to arrest the situation. Furthermore, while religious leaders are handling the issue of morality, the government must handle the issue of economic prosperity,” he added.
On his part, a professor of Educational Guidance and Counseling at the University of Kigali, Rwanda, AbdulRasaq Olayinka Oniye, called on the state government to enact a stringent policy to curtail use of illicit drugs among the youths.
He described the teenagers’ clash over Aisha as a sad and worrisome development which is a potential recipe for breakdown of law and order.
“Such an incident must be nipped in the bud so that other youths would not use it as a precedent to cause a similar act of brigandage. They must be under the influence of drug and substance abuse to have acted in such a dastardly manner,” he said.
