September 15, (THEWILL) — Kwara State in recent times has witnessed a rising wave of insecurity, driven by unending bandit attacks from the northern to southern parts of the state. Hundreds of bandits armed with sophisticated weapons have relentlessly attacked communities, killing and kidnapping vulnerable residents.
As a result, many communities affected by the surge in criminal activities across the state have been deserted as the residents abandoned their homes in search of peace and safety.
Close to two months now, the situation has remained the same. The killings and kidnapping have not abated. Recently, a monarch’s family members were kidnapped in the state, even as about 16 communities were ransacked by these daredevil bandits.
According to reports, a few weeks ago five residents were killed when no fewer than 200 heavily armed bandits invaded Babanla town and some other communities in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. The bandits robbed and kidnapped an specified number of residents of the area.
The attacks led to an exodus from the local government area as residents fled the besieged communities for dear lives.
The marauding bandits also targeted local farmers, attacking them while at work in their farms and killing or kidnapping some. Scared and facing an uncertain future, many farmers have abandoned their farms. This will have a spill-over effect, no doubt, on food production in the communities.
In what seems like a latest development, in Isanlu-Isin, a community in Isin Local Government Area of the state, the crisis assumed a different dimension when a local vigilante group, which had all the while borne the responsibility for the protection of communities in the area without support from the state, received intelligence that bandits were preparing to invade the community.The Isanlu-Isin vigilante group, supported by its counterparts from neighbouring towns, mobilised to confront the threat. Unfortunately, although the vigilante groups bravely put up a combined effort to resist the bandits, it ended in failure with disastrous consequences.
Meanwhile, fear and uncertainty still overhangs many communities in Kwara, even as Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak recently promised the intervention of the Nigerian military in the security crisis in the state.
We believe that state governments owe the people under their rule a duty to protect them and their property at all times. The ongoing crisis in Kwara shows how a state government should not behave when its people are under siege from dangerous criminals. Instead of folding its arm and looking away or waiting for the military to intervene, it should rise to the challenge and do something.
It is quite a shame how, for what seemed like a spell, bandits appeared to take control of the entire state, killing and kidnapping, as well as sowing seeds of destruction wherever they went.
