ATTENTION MR PRESIDENT: INSECURITY IN KOGI WEST APPEARS ORCHESTRATED AHEAD OF 2027
Insecurity in Kogi West has reached a dangerous and unsustainable level. Kidnapping, banditry, and targeted killings have become near-daily occurrences across key communities and transport corridors—from Kotonkarfe and Lokoja to Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Mopamuro, Yagba East, and Yagba West. Homes, farms, churches, and highways are no longer safe.
This statement is issued by Kogi Equity Alliance (KEA), a non-partisan civic and policy advocacy platform committed to equity, constitutional balance, and citizen security in Kogi State. KEA has consistently warned that prolonged political exclusion, weak institutional response, and selective governance create conditions that incubate instability. The current security crisis in Kogi West reflects a disturbing pattern that now requires urgent federal attention.
The persistence, spread, and regularity of these attacks suggest coordination rather than coincidence. Of particular concern is the failure of the Kogi State Government to design and execute an effective containment strategy despite clear escalation. This sustained inadequacy points to institutional neglect and raises serious questions about the political economy sustaining the violence.
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The security breakdown coincides with Kogi West’s renewed and legitimate demand for a power shift in 2027. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Kogi East has produced three governors, accounting for eighteen years in office. By 2027, Kogi Central would have produced governors for twelve years under the current constitutional order—sixteen years when its tenure in the old Kwara State between 1979 and 1983 is included. Kogi West, despite its population size and strategic importance, has produced none.
It is therefore difficult to dismiss the political implications of the timing of this insecurity. Credible concerns have been raised regarding the activities of illegal miners allegedly backed by powerful interests, as well as the involvement of non-indigenous actors operating within industrial corridors. A recent public statement also accused a former governor of tacit involvement in destabilising parts of Kogi West. These allegations warrant serious, independent, and transparent security investigation.
Kogi West hosts the state capital and accommodates a significant concentration of federal institutions, security formations, tertiary institutions, and heavy industries. It is the most populous of the three senatorial zones. The sustained destabilisation of such a strategic zone carries national security implications and cannot be treated as a local inconvenience.
Under Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Where sub-national authorities are unable or unwilling to discharge this obligation, responsibility necessarily reverts to the Federal Government. The situation in Kogi West has reached that constitutional threshold.
We therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to take urgent and direct interest in the security situation in Kogi West. Specifically, Kogi Equity Alliance recommends the following immediate directives:
• Immediate rehabilitation of major federal roads linking Kogi West to Kwara State and the South‑West, particularly the Isanlu–Egbe axis and the Kabba–Omuo‑Ekiti corridor, which have become critical crime routes.
• Fortification and full operationalisation of the Forward Operating Military Base constructed through the personal intervention of the Senator representing Kogi West, Distinguished Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, and donated to the Nigerian Army.
• Sustained deployment of surveillance assets, intelligence capabilities, and technology‑driven policing across the vast geographical expanse of Kogi West.
• A comprehensive, time‑bound security sweep of affected communities to dismantle criminal networks, restore state authority, and enable displaced residents to return home.
• Immediate activation of an inter‑agency security task force comprising the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, DSS, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and relevant intelligence units, with a clearly defined operational mandate, reporting timeline, and accountability framework.
The urgency of this intervention is underscored by recent events. On Sunday, no fewer than thirteen residents were abducted during an attack on Ayetoro‑Kiri community in the Bunu axis of Kabba‑Bunu Local Government Area. Local hunters, compelled by the thinning of conventional policing, engaged the attackers and neutralised four assailants.
On the same day, armed gangs abducted the elder brother of the Chairman of Yagba West Local Government Area, Mr Tosin Oluokun, who also serves as Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Kogi State chapter. The victim was kidnapped while working on his farm in Egbe, the commercial nerve centre of Yagba West.
These incidents expose a deepening security failure and the dangerous reliance on local hunters to perform functions that properly belong to the state. The crisis is no longer abstract. It is personal, direct, and escalating.
Kogi Equity Alliance therefore calls on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to act decisively in the national interest. Security cannot be selective, and equity cannot be postponed without consequence. Anything less signals surrender.
— Kogi Equity Alliance (KEA)
(Democracy Newsline Newspaper, December 16th 2025)
