Armed bandits attacked a poultry farm in Igushi, Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, on April 9, killing the female owner of the farm and her daughter during a botched kidnapping attempt and abducting three workers who remain in captivity.
The attack, confirmed by multiple Nigerian news outlets including Channels TV, Tribune, and Gazette, was verified by Ondo State Police spokesperson DSP Abayomi Jimoh, who provided details of the raid and confirmed that investigations are ongoing.
The incident has fueled widespread public anxiety over the spread of insecurity into southwest Nigeria, a region that has historically been less affected by the banditry and kidnapping that have plagued the northwest and north-central zones for over a decade.
The poultry farm attack is significant not just because of the deaths and abductions but because of where it happened.
Ondo State, while not immune to crime, has not been a major theatre of bandit operations or large-scale kidnapping for ransom. The fact that armed groups are now conducting raids in rural areas of the southwest, killing business owners, and taking hostages suggests that the security situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to the point where no region can consider itself safe. The bandits operated with confidence, entered a commercial farm in daylight or early evening, killed two people, and left with three captives, actions that indicate either a lack of security presence in the area or a calculation that the risk of confrontation with law enforcement is low enough to be acceptable.
The deaths of the farm owner and her daughter are particularly tragic because they were not the primary targets. The bandits came to kidnap workers, likely intending to demand ransom from their families or the farm’s management.
When the owner and her daughter resisted or were perceived as obstacles, they were killed. The decision to shoot them rather than simply take them hostage or leave them behind suggests a level of ruthlessness that is consistent with the bandit groups operating in other parts of the country, groups that have shown repeatedly that they are willing to kill without hesitation if their objectives are threatened or if victims do not comply immediately.
The three abducted workers are now hostages, and their families are facing the nightmare that thousands of Nigerian families have experienced over the past decade.
The bandits will demand ransom, likely in amounts that the families cannot afford, and the negotiation process, if it happens at all, will be conducted through intermediaries with no guarantee that payment will result in release. Some hostages are killed even after ransom is paid. Others are held for weeks or months in conditions that amount to torture. And the psychological trauma of being abducted, held, and eventually released or rescued, if that happens, lasts far longer than the captivity itself….See More
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