Residents of Ekamefa communities in Ekiti State say their lives and economy are being threatened by gunmen whose activities include kidnapping, attacking, and killing their people. ABIODUN NEJO writes
On their way home after work on November 21, a school principal, Mr Oladele, two teachers and a nurse were kidnapped along the Irele-Oke Ako road in the Ajoni Local Council Development Area in Ekiti State.
People of the area say similar incidents have happened constantly on the road and in other parts of Ekamefa, which comprises six communities in the Ajoni LCDA in the past few years.
The principal, who received serious beatings from the captors was, however, lucky to be able to loosen the ropes used to tie his hands with those of one of the teachers and escape from the den the following day when the gunmen were asleep.
But the remaining three, who had to pay the ransom on November 23, according to sources, to secure their release, were happy to leave the kidnappers’ den alive, the torture they underwent notwithstanding.
The four were kidnapped 21 days after four travellers returning from an event in Kogi State to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, were abducted on the Iyemero–Irele Road. Before being released, the travellers were said to have paid a N4 million ransom.
Victims recount ordeals
Fifty-year-old Osasona Oduntan was lucky as he escaped unhurt when gunmen shot at him along Oke Ako Road at about 5.30 pm on Saturday, September 3.
Oduntan said, “I was riding on a motorbike; I saw two children in a bush by the road and was attempting to be sure. Suddenly, a man pointed a gun and fired a shot at me but the bullets missed me and I had to leave with speed.”
However, his nephew, 40-year-old Segun Ayebulu, a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officer, who was travelling along the road to his Ogbe hometown in Kogi State, was not so lucky about 25 minutes earlier as gunmen shot him dead in his car and whisked away three occupants of the car.
It took the three abductees, the younger brother of the late NSCDC officer, the five-year-old child of the deceased, and the 11-year-old child of the slain officer’s elder brother four days to regain their freedom after their family coughed out about five million naira, recharge cards, milk and sachets of alcoholic drinks.
Also, although 75-year-old Pa Adesoye Oguntayo survived being killed by the herdsmen who attacked him on his farm at Oke Ako in March 2022, the scars on his head will tell the story of the machete cuts inflicted on him by armed herdsmen in his farm.
The septuagenarian, who has since abandoned the farm to stay alive said, “I was picking cashew nuts on my farm when some Fulani herdsmen, numbering about five, passed by with their cattle.
“In the process, one of them started beating me with his herdsman’s stick and when the stick broke, he started hitting my head with his machete, inflicting deep injuries.”
Fifty-year-old Osasona Oduntan was lucky as he escaped unhurt when gunmen shot at him along Oke Ako Road at about 5.30 pm on Saturday, September 3.
Oduntan said, “I was riding on a motorbike; I saw two children in a bush by the road and was attempting to be sure. Suddenly, a man pointed a gun and fired a shot at me but the bullets missed me and I had to leave with speed.”
However, his nephew, 40-year-old Segun Ayebulu, a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officer, who was travelling along the road to his Ogbe hometown in Kogi State, was not so lucky about 25 minutes earlier as gunmen shot him dead in his car and whisked away three occupants of the car.
It took the three abductees, the younger brother of the late NSCDC officer, the five-year-old child of the deceased, and the 11-year-old child of the slain officer’s elder brother four days to regain their freedom after their family coughed out about five million naira, recharge cards, milk and sachets of alcoholic drinks.
Also, although 75-year-old Pa Adesoye Oguntayo survived being killed by the herdsmen who attacked him on his farm at Oke Ako in March 2022, the scars on his head will tell the story of the machete cuts inflicted on him by armed herdsmen in his farm.
The septuagenarian, who has since abandoned the farm to stay alive said, “I was picking cashew nuts on my farm when some Fulani herdsmen, numbering about five, passed by with their cattle.
“In the process, one of them started beating me with his herdsman’s stick and when the stick broke, he started hitting my head with his machete, inflicting deep injuries.”
Eight people, who had come for a burial ceremony, were kidnapped in a night raid in October 2021 in Itapaji Ekiti.
A resident, who said the victims were set free two days after they had paid N2.5 million ransom, said, “The gunmen, numbering seven came around 9.30 pm and surrounded the building. They fired gunshots sporadically. As the people in the house came out, they were grabbed, made to lie face down and later taken into the bush.”
According to the people of Ekamefa communities — Oke Ako, Ijowa, Irele, Ipao, Itapaji and Iyemero — the above incidents are a mere fraction of the horror they face in the hands of the gunmen in the farms, homes, roads, and the expansive forest linking them together, as well as with Kogi and Kwara states.
The regent of Oke Ako, Princess Tinuade Ogunbiyi, given the frequency of attacks and her seeming helplessness, expressed frustration that fateful Saturday when news of the killing of the NSCDC officer and the kidnapping by the gunmen got to her.
Ogunbiyi said, “I do not know what to say again. It is the same thing repeating itself now and then. I am at a loss of what to say.”
She had earlier lamented that armed herders were occupying 70 per cent of the community farmland, grazing cattle there, saying, “They are depriving our people the opportunity to farm. They destroy our people’s crops. They constitute threats to our lives and economy. Our people can no longer go to their farms.
“The result is that we no longer have food. The prices of foodstuffs have soared. People are migrating from Oke Ako in droves for security. We are helpless. The herders are armed with guns and machetes and daily attack our people everywhere — in the farms, in the bushes, and on the roads.
Residents of the six towns say the area, being the border of Ekiti State with Kogi and Kwara states with expansive fertile forests has no police formation, with the nearest being in Ikole-Ekiti, the headquarters of Ikole Local Government, which they were part of before the creation of Ajoni LCDA last year.
A youth leader at Oke Ako, Samuel Babatunde said, “Apart from patrols in some cases, there is no single police formation or outpost in the six communities making up Ekamefa. In 2012, Fulani herders killed a policeman in Irele-Ekiti, the next thing was that they removed police outposts from Irele, Ipao, and Itapaji.
The LCDA Chairman, Michael Ogungbemi, who lamented that criminals had taken over the expansive forests in the area, said his administration, in a bid to contribute to the fight against insecurity, put in place Operation Eradicating Bandits at the Borders of Rural Ajoni Communities.
Ogungbemi said, “Operation EBBORAC is saddled with three major assignments: to patrol, to go on surveillance, and also to gather intelligence for the conventional security agencies in the local government and the state.”
A youth leader speaks
The youth leader, Babatunde, who said the Ekamefa communities were attractive to the herders and gunmen given the borders’ porous nature, said, “We have borders with Kwara and Kogi states, so they can easily penetrate from those two states.
“Again, during the time of Obafemi Awolowo as premier of the Western Region, he built five dams in Oke Ako. It is the dams that the herdsmen followed to our place because of year-round water.”
The former councillor, Ajayi, who corroborated him, added, “We have expanse landmasses that the herdsmen, who are now armed, saw as conducive to accommodating their herds. Their activities have been affecting the communities.
“Ekamefa area is an agricultural hub because of the natural endowment. Most of the farm produce used to be from this place but now, many people cannot go to the farm. I have farmland, but after my experience with herdsmen, I cannot go there again. I appeal to the state and federal governments to pay more attention to the Ekamefa area in the aspect of security presence.”
According to residents, across the length and breadth of Ekamefa, there is growing discontent and bottled-up frustration over their inability to continue with their farming activities and the killings of their people.
The spokesperson for Ekamefa, Oluwafemi Abayomi, said, “Insecurity is a big problem in our area here. Our people do not feel safe and nobody can go to the farm again without being kidnapped or attacked.
“We call on the state and federal governments to help us; we are helpless in the hands of the gunmen. There are soldiers at Ipao and Oke Ako. These killing and kidnapping incidents happen around there; we need help,” Abayomi said.
Security agencies react
Reacting, the Security Adviser to Ekiti State governor, Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana (retd.), assured that the state government was stepping up efforts on the security of lives and property in all parts of the state, including the Ekamefa area.
Ogundana, who said strategies put in place by the state government and the security agencies had made Ekiti relatively safe, explained, “What we are experiencing in that area are isolated cases of crisis but because our people are peace-loving, they are agitated whenever there is a violation and escalate it.
“The government did not abandon any part of the state. As I speak, we have the police, army, NSCDC, Amotekun, local hunters and vigilantes working there for over a month now, combing the forest. That was what led to the arrest of the kidnappers paraded last week by the police. The team will be there until further directive.
“Efforts are being made to ensure that we have some permanent structures there so that the people can relate to the security agencies freely and share information with them.’’
The security adviser, who said the criminals came from neighbouring states through the forest, urged the people of Ekamefa to cooperate with the security agencies, saying, “We understand there are large forests there but the people need to work with the security agencies as a team.
“Security is a collective effort. While the government is doing its part, the communities should do theirs. Information is very crucial so that we can be on top of the situation.”
The Corps Commandant, Ekiti State Amotekun Corps, Brig. Gen. Joe Komolafe (retd.), also assured the people of Ekamefa and all parts of Ekiti State that the corps and security agencies, which had been working jointly, “will get to the root and sweep the forests clean of the gunmen.”
Komolafe said, “Amotekun operatives embark on constant monitoring of the forests as well as special operations there to flush out criminal elements. We rely on intelligence; we go on regular patrols, both on our own and with other security agencies. We don’t want to be reactive; we want to be proactive, and that is what we are doing.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, Sunday Abutu, assured residents of the area and border towns that attacks would be a thing of the past as the Police Commissioner, Moronkeji Adesina, had deployed special operatives to the areas, especially the hot spots.
Abutu said, “A serious operation is ongoing across the forests in Ekiti State, where criminals are staying. The operation will continue until they are all arrested. The efforts are paying off. Some suspected kidnappers and criminals have been apprehended and brought to court for prosecution, while investigations into others continue.”
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