Banditry: Death Toll Now 25 In Kogi Attack

• Community wants military base

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT – With the death toll reportedly rising to 25 persons in the recent banditry attack in Kogi State, the Leader of Agojeju-Odo Community, Chief Elias Atabor, wants the Federal Government to establish a military base in the Omala Local Government of the State.

According to Chief Atabor, such a move will help to checkmate bandits’ incessant attacks on the community and its peace-loving people.

Atabor, who made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Friday, said; “We are so worried that the death toll keeps rising by the hour”.

Speaking against the backdrop of reports that the death toll of Thursday’s attack on the community had risen from 19 to 25 persons, the Community Leader said; “We are pleading with the Federal Government to bring to our community a military base that will help us to checkmate the incessant attacks in our communities in Omala LGA.

“Thursday’s attack is the second in less than three months this year alone. The first was on January 29 when four persons were killed by bandits.

“We cannot continue dying like fowls in our own community. Agojeju-Odo is our ancestral home and we have no other place to go besides it. Many of our people are still missing and we are still discovering more corpses. It’s painful and worrying”.

He said the worrying security situation demands that the “Government come to our aid and save us before those bandits, who are sophisticatedly armed, wipe us out from this Earth”.

Atabor further lamented that the communities, Agojeju-Odo, Ajokpachi-Odo and Bagaji have become ghost towns with no economic activity going on due to the attacks.

He said it was regrettable that their children can no longer have the desired education as virtually all the schools in those communities are closed down due to insecurity.

However, the Community Leader expressed gratitude to Governor Usman Ododo and the security operatives for their immediate response by deploying personnel to the troubled communities.

Also reacting to the disturbing security situation, a community stakeholder, Mr Adamu Ibrahim, pleaded with President Bola Tinubu and Governor Ododo to assist the communities with some relief materials, having lost their farm produce and other materials to the bandits’ attack.

Describing the attacks as “wicked and unacceptable”, considering the way and manners the bandits are killing the people, Ibrahim noted that there had been a running battle between militia groups in parts of Benue and some bandits, leading to the onslaught on the sleepy communities of Agojeju-Odo, Ajokpachi-Odo, Bagaji and environs.

He lamented that the bandits have destroyed farm produce with ease in an attempt to draw the communities into the conflict.

Available reports indicated that initially 19 persons were killed and several others injured during Thursday’s broad daylight bandits attack on Agojeju-Odo community in Omala Local Government Area of Kogi State.

But as of Friday evening, it was reliably gathered that the figure rose to 21, including four children, while several others have been hospitalised.

Confirming the development, Special Adviser to Governor Ododo on Security, Commodore Jerry Omodara (rtd) said the death toll had risen to 21, adding that more bodies were being discovered by the hour. – With NAN reports