TERRORISTS INVADE YORUBA COMMUNITY IN KOGI, KIDNAP BUSINESSMAN AS RESIDENTS FLEE IN FEAR

By Ademola Adekusibe
15th November 2025

Armed terrorists on Friday night launched another attack on Egbe, a Yoruba community in Kogi State, abducting a local businessman identified as Ben Logbon and leaving several residents injured and terrified.

Sources in the community told The Yoruba Times that the attackers, some of whom wore military-style uniforms, stormed the town overnight, targeting homes and businesses. A bread factory owner believed to be one of their primary targets narrowly escaped.

A youth leader in the area said the terrorists also shot a traveller moving from Odo-Ere to Egbe on Saturday morning, while a couple escaped an attempted kidnapping during the Friday night raid.

Residents expressed deep concern that the renewed attacks are part of a broader pattern aimed at destabilising Yoruba communities in Kogi and gradually pushing southwards.

“If these terrorists succeed in overrunning Yorubaland in Kogi, the next targets will be Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, even Lagos, Ogun and Oyo,” one community source warned. “Those who can think deeply know their goal is to penetrate and dominate Yoruba territories.”

Morenike Agbana, a resident of Egbe, said the community now lives in daily fear. “They were heavily armed. They kidnapped Mr. Ben Logbon and took him away. People now avoid going out early in the morning. By 5pm or 6pm the whole town is deserted.”

She added that the situation has become unbearable. “Women are raped. We can’t go to our farms. We can’t fetch water. We are living in fear in our own fatherland because of these invading terrorists.”

In neighbouring Odo-Ere, community member Babatunde Menahin said residents have paid over N100 million in ransom to kidnappers in the last two years, with at least 10 people killed within the same period.

The latest attack adds to a growing list of violent incidents in Kogi communities predominantly occupied by Yoruba people, prompting renewed calls for urgent government intervention and improved security presence in the region.