A new security assessment by SBM Intelligence has identified 10 major security flashpoints across Nigeria, warning that armed groups are expanding into new territories and are likely to intensify kidnappings, terrorist attacks, communal violence and political killings in the coming weeks if urgent measures are not taken.
The report links emerging threats in Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Borno, Sokoto, Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu, Edo, Osun and Oyo states to the growing exploitation of poorly governed border forests and weak security presence, saying these corridors are enabling bandits, kidnappers and insurgent-linked groups to move across state boundaries, evade security forces and establish new operational bases.
According to the report, the recent abduction of three members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), who were allegedly travelling to deliver a ransom to kidnappers in Oko Irese, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, demonstrates the increasing sophistication of armed groups operating around the Kwara-Kogi boundary.
The report suggests the kidnappers may belong to one of three categories, including a splinter faction of armed Fulani bandits displaced from the North-West by sustained military offensives, a conventional kidnapping gang exploiting the forests straddling Kwara and Kogi states, or operatives linked to the Ansaru extremist network seeking to establish logistics bases in the Middle Belt.
