Gunmen attacked a bus in Aku community, Adavi LGA, Kogi , abducting three passengers and killing one.
8 Sept 2025 · Aku, Adavi, Kogi
Deaths
1
Injured
0
Kidnapped
3
Total casualties
1
Perpetrators
Unidentified Armed Actors
Response
A joint team of the Kogi Vigilante Service (KSVS) Osara command and six local hunters responded immediately. They engaged the gunmen in a shootout, rescued the driver and three passengers, and launched an intelligence‑led pursuit of the abductors. The vigilantes also recovered the bus. The state police command was contacted but had not formally commented at the time of the reports.
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Banditry-for-ransom economy, weak highway security
Trajectory
This incident is part of a growing spate of highway kidnappings in Kogi , particularly along the Okene–Lokoja and Okene–Auchi roads. In the same month, the district head of Bagaji Odo (Omala LGA) was abducted and later freed.
Cycle notes
The attack directly echoes the wave of highway kidnappings that plagued the Kaduna–Abuja corridor in the mid‑2010s. During that period, armed groups routinely stopped passenger vehicles, abducted individuals for ransom, and melted into the surrounding forests. Like that earlier wave, the Kogi attacks are happening along a major federal highway, yet the response remains reactive – patrols arrive after the fact, and abductors are rarely caught. The repeated targeting of the Okene–Lokoja road without a lasting security fix mirrors the early phases of the Banditry crisis in the North‑West, when communities were left to rely on local vigilantes while the state’s presence remained peripheral.
Pattern
Highway Ambush
Related — Kidnapping
Suspected kidnappers attacked Sarkin Noma community in Keana LGA, Nasarawa State. Two youths were killed during the assault.
An elderly Italian construction engineer, Modesto di Girolamo, in his late 70s, was kidnapped in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State. The engineer, who worked for the Italian firm Borini Prono Construction Company, was abducted at approximately 5:30 pm while inspecting a road drainage project along Bishop Smith Street. The assailants whisked him away to an unknown destination in a waiting vehicle. No contact was made by the kidnappers in the three days following the abduction.
Boko Haram insurgents invaded St. Agnes Catholic Church in Gassol LGA, Taraba State, at 9:58 pm. They opened fire inside the church and abducted a catechist.