Bandits strike again in Kwara, kidnap farmer days after release of 38 worshippers

Barely a week after the release of 38 abducted members of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Oke-Isegun, Eruku, gunmen have again struck the troubled Kwara community, abducting a local farmer identified as Annas Aasanru.

The latest incident occurred on Sunday, deepening fear in a community still struggling to recover from repeated attacks. The previously kidnapped worshippers — held for five days during which three persons were killed — are still receiving medical care provided by the Kwara State Government at a hotel in Ilorin’s GRA.

Confirming the new abduction, the spokesperson of the Kwara State Police Command, SP Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said operatives received a distress call around 2:00 p.m. that four armed men invaded a farmland along Koro Road in Eruku earlier in the day and whisked away the 40-year-old farmer.

“Upon receipt of the report, a joint team of police, military personnel and local vigilantes was immediately deployed to the area for an intensive search and rescue operation,” she said.

Ejire-Adeyemi assured residents that efforts are ongoing to rescue the victim unharmed.

A community leader, who spoke anonymously, said the attackers, suspected to be Fulani/Bororo men, stormed the farmland wielding AK-47 rifles and cutlasses before abducting Aasanru and fleeing into the forest.

Sunday’s incident is the second major attack in Eruku within one month, heightening concerns over deteriorating security and the seeming vulnerability of communities along the Kogi–Kwara border corridor.