TERRORISTS are staging increasingly audacious incursions into Nigeria’s South-West, turning Ondo State into another testbed for their pernicious operations. While Akure North LGA is the most notorious for banditry and kidnapping in the region, its neighbour, Owo LGA, has had its share of the crises.<

A widow’s pain from kidnappers’ strikes

ENO Offordum, a mother of four and resident of Ilu-Abo, Akure North, is currently mourning the killing of her husband by kidnappers who stormed the community in February 2026.

John Offordum, 36, was about to drive into his home while returning from a burial in his home state, Anambra, when terrorists gunned him down. Another resident, identified as Mama Christianah, and her daughter were also shot. The woman, hit by bullets in the womb, was pronounced dead at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, according to the Chairman of Ilu-Abo Landlords Association, Johnson Adaja, a clergyman.

During the operation, the gunmen whisked away, a proprietress in the community, who was later freed after coughing up a 15-million-naira ransom. She never returned to the village after regaining her freedom but fled to Lagos, abandoning her school, Adaja said.

For Mama Christianah and Offordum, the Federal Medical Centre could not attend to them because its staff were on strike when they were rushed there.

While the former died at the facility, the latter was moved to Afe Babalola Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, where he died after two days at the hospital.

He left behind his 31-year-old wife and children, including a two-month-old boy in perennial pain. He will be buried on April 25, 2026, in his hometown, Unubi, Nnewi South, his wife told The ICIR in Oba-Ile town, near Akure, where she runs her husband’s small shop.

Eno lamented the challenges she would face in fending for the four children, including paying their tuition fees. The children are Godswill (15), Mary (four), Esther (three), and John (four months).

“We were together struggling to make it, but things were not easy,” the woman said.

“Before this thing, the community was not safe because every day, you heard stories of kidnapping, shooting, and killings. He was a businessman selling building materials. My husband was a very calm person. He hardly talked, and he never had a problem with anyone.

“His death has been affecting our four children and me very badly; even to feed is hard for us. We are even thinking about how we will pay school fees because school resumes soon. Life has never been easy for us since my husband’s death. Currently, three of the children are in school,” Eno, an indigene of Ibam, Ini LGA, Akwa Ibom State, added.

The terrorist attack that led to Offordum’s death was one of the deadly onslaughts on Ilu-Abo in 2026, the community monarch, and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, told The ICIR.

The attacks and thousands of others across Nigeria are the reasons the country currently ranks as the fourth most terrorism-impacted nation in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index. It has also culminated in more than half of its 36 states being declared unsafe.

Nigeria sees deadly terrorist and other criminals’ attacks almost on a daily basis, especially in the North-East, North-West, and North-Central. Terrorists, whom the Federal Government once claimed it had degraded, are making a brutal comeback, taking the fight to military bases, and killing scores of soldiers, including generals.

With the additions of other terror groups, namely Lakurawa, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and bandits, Nigeria, which also battles herders-farmers conflicts and other crises, has remained more unsafe than ever. The crisis keeps ballooning despite the Nigerian government declaring all criminal groups in the country as terrorists.

From Sokoto to Maiduguri, Plateau to Niger and other parts of the nation, thousands of women, men and children have been left in agony after losing their loved ones, since the beginning of insurgency in the country at the start of this century.

Celestial Church in debt over ransom to secure abducted members

The ICIR contacted more victims of terrorism in Akure North, including the Celestial Church of Christ in Uso community, Owo LGA. They opined that insurgents were attempting to gain entry into the entire South-West through Ondo State.

Two of the church leaders declined to give their names when contacted. They said abductors whisked away 18 members from the church on February 25, 2026, after dropping those who were too weak to trek in the bush.

“It was those people who alerted the rest of us and prompted us to call soldiers. We felt that the soldiers would get them, but they had gone too far into the forest,” one of the leaders said.

The church said it paid the kidnappers N9 million after days of negotiations. The gunmen had demanded N100 million.

“We thank God that they escaped from their captors’ den. We are aware of other incidents where abductees were killed. A pregnant women kidnapped in our church was released and put to bed four days later. We saw an abducted person on social media who gave birth to twins, and her captors threw the babies to dogs.”

The leaders accused the Nigerian government of abandoning the citizens to kidnappers. They said the church still owed debts because it borrowed the ransom.

“We sold cars to raise that money. We took contributions from members to raise that money. We also borrowed from people outside the church. Did anyone in the government contribute a dime to the ransom? The most important thing is that God should take absolute control. This fight is not ours here but God’s,” the church leaders stated.

The 34-year-old worship centre serves as a residence for some of its leaders, while scores of its members come there for prayers daily.

Ex-SGF, now community monarch, Olu Falae, speaks

Olu Falae expressed shock at the turn of events in Nigeria’s security architecture, especially in his village.

The monarch, who was kidnapped by herders on his farm in 2015, showed the reporter a scar on his hand. He narrated how safe he and other Nigerians lived without fear of insecurity when he was growing up.

“At the age of 77, I was kidnapped on my own farm. As a child, I was free to travel throughout Nigeria. That summarises the story for you,” the 87-year-old monarch stated.

He said recent attacks occurred in Ilu-Abo because the community was too accommodating to visitors and was not prepared for the onslaughts. He vowed that his people, with government’s support, were ready to defeat the assailants.

The ICIR reports that five people were killed in the community, while several others were whisked away by gunmen in the past months, leading to protests by residents and blockage of the Akure-Owo Road.

Ilu-Abo (meaning a place of refuge) is an agrarian village that accommodates every Nigerian who cherishes farming. The community’s land, like that of others in the LGA, is very fertile for agriculture. But it has turned into an epicentre of abductions and killings by terrorists.

The monarch explained that kidnappers had attacked the community three times in recent months, killing and abducting residents.

He blamed the attacks on herders and Fulanis, vowing that his community was prepared to face anyone who dared the current security architecture in the community, including trucks of soldiers, police and Amotekun corps officers who patrol the community day and night and have bases in the village.

Ilu-Abo also has its own security network, which mounts checkpoints in different locations and protects the community.
But the initiative comes with a price for every household, which pays a N5,000 levy monthly to support security operations in the village.

“With what we are doing, we hope that no kidnapping will ever take place here again. If any kidnapper comes, those security forces will deal with him,” Falae said.

There is collusion from within

The monarch, however, revealed that indigenes were colluding with herders to abduct residents in the LGA because “they see the crime as ‘good business”.

For instance, he denounced the attribution of the abduction of nurses at the primary health centre at Oke-Ijebu, Akure, as the handiwork of herders.

“Those were not Fulani people. Fulanis don’t operate in towns. They operate in the bush. These were our own people. They’ve learnt from the Fulani that there’s money in this business.

“Yes, the Fulanis are the main perpetrators of these criminal acts, but some of our own indigenous people have learnt from them and are making money. They are organising kidnappings on their own. Some are even kidnapping themselves and announcing they’ve been kidnapped to make money.”

A farmer in the community and former supervisory councillor in Akure North LGA, Biodun Adefela, lamented how farmers could no longer farm in Ilu-Abo.

He named several residents who were abducted in the community, including a US-based Nigerian who established a fertiliser firm in the village and was kidnapped. N30 million was paid to rescue him, he stated.

Between 10 and 15 people have been kidnapped since the crisis started. Five others have also been killed; he said, calling for the establishment of a military base near Ilu-Abo to scare the gunmen.

Leaders raise concern over residents’ safety on farms

The security committee in Iju, one of the two towns serving as the headquarters of Akure North,  expressed worry about the safety of people on the community’s farms.

The ICIR met some of the town’s Security Committee members, namely Solomon Ogunbuyide (a clergyman and the committee chairman), Kola Omoloju (a former supervisory councillor), Ezekiel Enikanoselu (a chief), and the community youth leader, Ogundeji Jimoh.

They said insecurity was crippling farming activities in the town.

Ogunbuyide said, “This thing is happening every day. The issue of the Fulani coming into the South-West has been on for a long time. In our community here, apart from the experience of Dele Fagoriola (former Akure North LGA chairman who was kidnapped in 2018), we had the children of Baba Gabriel Olotu in 2023, whose son was abducted alongside his bride-to-be.

“There was another farmer, Akinmeji from Okitipupa, an engineer, who was kidnapped on his farm in 2020. In the course of searching for Akinmeji, another boy here in the town, Daniel, was killed by the abductors.

Enikanoselu recalled another victim, an Igbira man and his boss’ friend who were kidnapped. The man paid N4.5 million ransom, while his boss friend parted with N2.5 million before he was freed, he stated.

The community has had four incidents of abduction and two killings, said its youth leader.

He explained that herders used the Iju community, bordering Ikere Ekiti, to navigate Ekiti State and other parts of Akure North.

The community appreciated the efforts of security agencies, but said Amotekun, which it said was very effective in the town, lacked the weapons that matched those of the kidnappers.