Bandits, in the early hours of yesterday, at Lade community in Kakafu village of Patigi Local Council of Kwara State, killed a vigilance group’s commander, popularly known as Tetengi.
 
Eyewitnesses said the attackers stormed the village on Wednesday night, leaving residents in panic.
 
“We woke up to another tragedy, our commander was shot dead while defending us,” a local said.

The Northcentral state has, for a while, been grappling with recurring security threats, as rural communities have often borne the brunt of banditry.

Consequently, a community leader and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Opeyemi Olabanji, has canvassed a collective fund-raising approach by prominent citizens of the Kwara South Senatorial District to contain the violence.
 
At a press conference yesterday in Ilorin, the politician said the attacks have plundered the vast resources of his agrarian people by preventing them from undertaking their age-long farming.
 
He urged the people to pool resources, especially money, towards setting up credible security networks and systems to complement “the credible efforts” of Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq at securing the area.
 
The APC stalwart proposed a sum of N5 billion as take-off for the security network, noting that the fund could be in the custody of a prominent traditional ruler in the area.

Stating that none of the settlements could survive whatever onslaught in isolation, Olabanji said the entire people should, like some geopolitical zones in the country, make their security system homogeneous.