In his first operational intervention after assuming office, IGP Olatunji Disu on Monday descended on Kaiama in Kwara State, signalling a decisive shift in the federal government’s posture against rural banditry and forest-based criminal networks terrorising communities across the North-Central region.
The high-profile visit came on the heels of a major security breakthrough — the arrest of 32 suspected bandits linked to kidnapping, cattle rustling, and a string of violent crimes that had long unsettled residents of Kwara’s rural communities.
Disu’s presence in Kaiama was deliberate and strategic — a boots-on-the-ground signal to both officers and criminal elements that the nation’s top police officer is personally invested in the war against banditry.
“This is not a desk war,” a source close to the command said. “The IGP coming to Kaiama himself sends a very strong message to the criminals and a morale boost to officers on the ground.”
The Inspector-General commended officers of the Kwara State Police Command and detectives of the Intelligence Response Team for what he described as a professionally executed operation, noting that the arrests were the product of sustained intelligence-led operations rather than chance encounters.
According to the Kwara State Police Command, investigations revealed that the 32 suspects belong to multiple gangs operating out of forest corridors across six known zones — Awi, Kaiama, Patigi, Gbugbu, Tsaraji, and Babanla — using the dense vegetation as both shelter and launching pads for attacks on local communities.
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Among the suspects arrested are two foreign nationals from the Niger Republic, believed to have been coordinating cross-border criminal activities with local bandit groups, raising fresh concerns about transnational security threats along Nigeria’s porous northern borders.
Also arrested was Umar Mohammed, a suspect from Jos, Plateau State, alleged to have been supplying communication equipment to the bandit network — underscoring just how organised and geographically spread the criminal enterprise had become.
Coordinated raids on the forest hideouts yielded a cache of weapons and tactical equipment that revealed the operational sophistication of the gang. Recovered items include:
– 4 AK-47 rifles
– 38 rounds of live ammunition
– 5 walkie-talkie communication devices
– 1 camouflage hydration backpack — believed to have been used to evade security patrols
The walkie-talkies point to a network with deliberate counter-surveillance capabilities — a detail that investigators say justified the level of coordination deployed in the operation.
Speaking during his field visit, IGP Disu made clear that the 32 arrests were not an endpoint, but an escalation.
He noted that the operations were part of a broader coordinated effort by the Nigeria Police Force and sister security agencies to dismantle criminal infrastructure embedded within forest locations across the region, and called on residents to sustain the flow of credible intelligence to security operatives.
The Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, CP Adekimi Ojo added weight to that message, vowing to intensify operations against banditry until safety is fully restored to affected communities.
“All suspects in custody will be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the law,” CP Ojo stated, warning that efforts to track down remaining members of the criminal gangs still at large were actively ongoing.
Significance of the IGP’s Visit
Security analysts and community leaders have drawn attention to the symbolic and operational weight of IGP Disu’s choice of Kaiama as the site of his first field intervention. The town sits within Kwara’s Baruten Local Government Area — one of several flashpoints for rural insecurity in the state — and his appearance there is being read as a deliberate message that no geography is too remote for federal policing attention.
For communities that have lived under the shadow of banditry, the visit and the arrests represent a rare moment of hope.
Kwara State Police Command confirmed that all suspects remain in custody pending prosecution.
Crediblenewsng.com
