Suspected kidnappers, on Sunday, took over the Eruku-Egbe road in Kwara State, firing at vehicles that refused to stop.

The outlaws scared travellers, especially motorists along the route, leaving them with no alternative but to either stop or go on and risk being fired at.

The Commissioner of Police (CP), Adekimi Ojo, told The Guardian Newspaper that a motorist who was shot at, rather than continue his journey, sought refuge at Eruku Police Station till the following day out of fear of being attacked again on the route.

The CP, in a telephone chat with our reporter, while clearing the air on the viral story that the kidnappers seized the route on Monday to unleash terror on motorists, debunked the rumour that it ever happened on Monday.

CP Ojo said: “I am not aware of any crisis on that route today (Monday). What you are referring to was what happened on Sunday at about 4 pm when they (kidnappers) fired at a vehicle and the driver drove straight to the police station in Eruku.”

He said, “Certainly, they were kidnappers because their reason for firing is to force the driver to stop so that they could trans-load.

“However, the driver who defied them went to our police station and stayed there till this morning when he left.”

He added that his men had mobilised and had chased the kidnappers away from the entire route.

“There are policemen on that road now, many of them, because the information we had is that those people (kidnappers) came from Ayemoro in Ekiti State. We are still working on the information,” he said.

Last month, troops of the Nigerian Army’s 2 Division and Sector 3, Operation Fasan Yamma, rescued 21 kidnapped victims in a major counter-banditry operation across Kwara and Kogi states.

According to a statement by the Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 2 Division, Lieutenant Colonel Polycarp Okoye, the operation took place on October 17, 2025, following coordinated offensives by troops of the 12 Brigade, Lokoja, and the 22 Armoured Brigade, Ilorin.

Okoye said the rescued victims included 14 males, four females, an infant, and four Chinese nationals who had been abducted from various locations across the two states. He noted that some of them had been in captivity for more than four months before intensified military operations forced the bandits to release them.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2 Division and Commander, Sector 3, Operation Fasan Yamma, Major General C. R. Nnebeife, said the victims were immediately given first aid and relief materials to aid their recovery from the trauma of their ordeal.