Nigerian Army troops have arrested a group of suspected bandits found in possession of AK-47 rifles and operating with a local security patrol vehicle in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, raising serious concerns over the sources of illicit arms fueling insecurity in the region.
The suspects were intercepted during a military operation in the area and immediately taken into custody. A video obtained during the arrest showed the men restrained, prostrated on the ground, as soldiers questioned them regarding their activities and the origin of the weapons recovered from them.
During the interrogation, one of the suspects, speaking in Hausa and Nigerian Pidgin, alleged that both the patrol vehicle and the AK-47 rifles were supplied by officials of the Kwara State government. He claimed that the group had been conducting patrols in the area under the guise of community security operations.
“We have been here for quite a while. We are using the vehicle for patrol. Wallahi, na the truth I dey tell you,” the suspect said in the video.
“Ilorin government na him give us this motor and the weapons. They were the ones that gave us the rifles.”
The suspect further alleged that the firearms were collected on their behalf by a superior officer, whom he referred to as “our oga,” insisting that several individuals were complicit in the arrangement.
“We are not the ones that collected the rifles; it was our oga that collected them. I know because I was with them. We go patrol many times with them, including oga Victor. All of them are involved. The weapons are theirs,” he claimed.
Throughout the video, the detainees repeatedly maintained that the weapons did not belong to them personally, swearing by God that the arms were not privately owned.
As of the time of filing this report, the Kwara State Government has not issued any official response to the allegations made by the suspects. The Nigerian Army has also not released a formal statement clarifying the circumstances surrounding the arrest or verifying the claims attributed to the detainees.
The arrest comes amid growing public anxiety over worsening insecurity in parts of Kwara State. Recently, three young men returning from their mother’s burial in Agboro, Kwara State, were reportedly abducted by suspected terrorists along the Odo-Ogbe axis of Yagba East Local Government Area.
The victims, Isanlu Bidemi (33), Olumide (30), and their 17-year-old cousin, Moses, were kidnapped on Sunday, December 7, 2025, while travelling home. A fourth traveller, identified as a Hausa man, was also reportedly abducted.
Family sources described the incident as a devastating double tragedy, noting that the victims had buried their mother only hours before the abduction. The kidnappers allegedly demanded a ransom of ₦10 million per victim, totalling ₦30 million.
When the family reportedly raised ₦3 million, the offer was rejected. Instead, the abductors allegedly intensified threats and beatings of the captives, using a basic torchlight phone belonging to the victims to make repeated ransom calls.
Residents of Yagba East and Yagba West Local Government Areas have condemned the incident, describing it as further evidence of the deteriorating security situation in the region and calling on authorities to urgently address the proliferation of arms and the activities of criminal groups.
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