By Temitope Muhideen, Confidence News Nigeria

Elder James Abodunrin (not real name) returned to Isapa after a long stay in Lokoja for 25 years. He returned to his hometown in 2015, where he ventured into farming. In this special report, he narrated what happened on Monday evening as armed bandits invaded the Isapa community.

There was an existing fear in the community after the earlier attack on CAC church in Eruku, a close community, I instructed my family not to attend church last Sunday, I haven’t been to the farm too for almost two weeks now, yesterday around 4pm, pastor of my church called me to see him at home by 6pm, I almost forgot, my granddaughter reminded me at exactly 5:40 pm, I put on my clothes, set to see the pastor, I was with my friend at the community high school when the sound of gun begin, at first we thought it was our local vigilante normal evening training. A few minutes later, people started running for their safety. Our local vigilante began to run towards a certain direction, shouting ” awon Kidnappers ti wo ilu oo, ki eniyankankan ma bosita oo” (kidnappers are in town, everyone should remain indoors).

While navigating for my safety, I witnessed the bravery of our local vigilante in a fierce battle with the armed bandits, the gun shot continues for more than 20 minutes with no police intervention, when I rushed home, my family already locked the door after they had already called my number more than 10 times, I was outside while the gun shot noises continues from a far distance sporadically, a few minutes later comes a man running while shouting ” won ti paa mummy Ranti o ( they have killed Ranti’s mum) at that point I had to break the door to my house for my safety.

Later that evening, the gravity of the situation began to sink in. I learned that Hajia Saida Na Allah, a valued customer who had been a consistent supporter of my farm, had also been kidnapped in the chaos. The atmosphere was thick with fear and uncertainty, and at precisely 9 PM, when tensions seemed to have somewhat eased, my pastor appeared at my doorstep, visibly shaken. He had been trying to contact me repeatedly, unsure if something terrible had befallen me.

It was a sad day for our community, many thanks to our local vigilante who stood firm during the fierce exchange of gunfire, it’s unfortunate that about 11 people were kidnapped during the attack, from what we have been able to confirm, the bandits came with the intention of killing people for no reason, they bowed to the pressure of our gallant local vigilante who fought fiercely, they were able to abduct our people, mostly kids under the age of 10. We have not been this displaced in our community, it’s a sad one.

We await the government’s response in securing our people. They have given us assurance. The police have not been responsive enough, unfortunately, with little resources and ammunition, our local security vigilantes have been in the bush for the last 10 hours in search of our loved ones.