Residents across Kogi State woke Saturday to sweeping restrictions on movement and commerce after the state government imposed an emergency security regime targeting criminal networks operating in the Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area — measures that also curtail daily life for law-abiding citizens in the region.
The Kogi State Government announced an immediate ban on night travel across all state-owned roads, prohibiting movement after 7:00 p.m. daily until further notice. Anyone found on a state road after curfew faces arrest and prosecution, the government warned.
The measures, signed off by Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, also shut down markets in affected hinterland corridors, banned commercial motorcycle operations — known locally as Okada — along key routes in Bunu District, and prohibited the sale of petrol and diesel in jerricans throughout Kabba/Bunu LGA.
“While the Government acknowledges that these measures may impose temporary inconveniences on law-abiding citizens, the protection of lives and communities remains paramount,” Information Commissioner Kingsley Femi Fanwo said in a statement.
The restrictions follow a terrorist attack on Iluke community in the Bunu hinterlands, which security forces say they successfully repelled. Joint Security Forces have since confirmed that several attackers were killed, with others wounded and believed to be trapped in forested areas as clearance operations continue.
Intelligence reports, the government said, established that motorcycle riders were being used to ferry food, water, medicine and logistics to bandits hiding in the forests — and in some cases to conduct reconnaissance on communities ahead of attacks.
The Okada ban covers a broad network of rural corridors, including routes from Idoyi Bunu through Iluke, Kiri, Odai Bunu, Igbo Bunu, Ilogun Bunu, Olle Bunu, Ayede Bunu, Oke-Ofin Bunu and Edumo Bunu, among others. Mobile medicine vendors have also been directed to halt motorcycle-based drug sales and distribution in the affected areas.
The jerrican fuel ban — which applies across the entire Kabba/Bunu LGA — is designed to deny criminal elements access to fuel, but will affect farmers, generators and small businesses that rely on such purchases.
The Motorcycle Operators Association of Nigeria (MOAN) has been directed to immediately sensitise its members about the ban, effective today.
The government said it would review the security situation every two weeks, with restrictions adjusted based on operational progress. It stopped short of giving a timeline for lifting the measures.
Authorities have warned that anyone found aiding, supplying or harbouring terrorists will be prosecuted as an accomplice under existing anti-terrorism laws, and said they already hold intelligence on individuals collaborating with criminal elements.
Residents were urged to cooperate with security agencies and report credible information to assist ongoing operations.
