Hundreds of residents, including youth and community leaders of Patigi Local Government Area in Kwara State, took to the streets on Friday to protest the worsening state of insecurity that has left their communities in fear and their hospital without doctors.
The protesters, carrying placards and chanting solidarity songs, gathered at the town center to express their frustration over what they described as unending killings and kidnappings that have plagued the area for months.
SaharaReporters reports that they accused the state government of neglecting the people of Patigi despite repeated appeals for intervention.
According to the demonstrators, the General Hospital in Patigi has been deserted by doctors who fled the town due to the escalating violence.
WATCH: Kwara Residents Protest Against Killings, Kidnappings As Doctors Abandon Government Hospital In Pategi pic.twitter.com/hjJTQrJnfK
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) October 17, 2025
The protesters alleged that armed Fulani attackers had been terrorising their villages, making it unsafe for residents to go to their farms or move freely, especially at night.
They said they noticed new and unfamiliar faces among the Fulani settlers at Kara Market, sparking fears of more attacks.
Community elders, joining the youth in the protest, appealed to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to take immediate action to restore peace and security in the area.
They warned that unless urgent steps were taken, the insecurity could lead to total economic collapse in Patigi and other parts of Kwara North.
They noted that anyone claiming that Kwara State is peaceful is not telling the truth. The youths lamented that they are being killed and kidnapped daily, while people are forced to pay ransoms worth millions of naira as their investments continue to perish.
They also criticised Senator Sadiq Umar, who represents Kwara North Senatorial District, accusing him of misrepresenting the situation before the Senate.
The demonstrators called for the relocation of the Kara Market, which they said has become a hub for suspicious activities, and demanded the deployment of more security personnel to patrol rural communities and forest areas where kidnappers are believed to be operating from.
They urged traditional rulers, lawmakers, and security agencies to work together to end the insecurity, warning that continued silence from authorities could lead to more loss of lives and property.
One of the protesters stated, “We, the youth of Patigi, together with our leaders, are appealing to the state government for urgent intervention. We are being killed day and night due to persistent banditry carried out by armed Fulani attackers.
“We want the Kara market in Patigi to be relocated because we have been seeing unfamiliar faces among the Fulani people, and we do not know who they are. We are living in fear, especially at night, as strange people continue to move around our community.
“Because of the insecurity, we find it difficult to go out at night. The situation has also affected the General Hospital in Patigi — due to the killings and kidnappings, all the doctors have fled. There is currently no doctor at the hospital, and our patients are dying. Our lives are no longer safe.
“We can no longer go to our farms because of fear. Our farm produce is getting spoiled as we are unable to harvest them. We are pleading for help from the government, traditional rulers, local government chairman, members of the House of Assembly, and Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. Please, come to our aid.
“We are dying. Anyone who tells you that Kwara State or Patigi is safe is not telling the truth. We are not safe. We are being killed every day and night. Please, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, come to our rescue. We urgently need your support.
“Senator Sadiq, you went to the chamber and said Kwara North is safe. It is not safe. We are dying. Our lives are not safe; day and night, we are being killed. There is no day you won’t receive a call from a neighbouring village saying that people have been kidnapped and ransom payments have been made—billions of naira—while all our investments are dying.”
SaharaReporters previously reported that despite the worsening insecurity in Kwara State, the state government rushed to the State High Court to file a case against investigative journalist Buhari Olanrewaju Ahmed, human rights activist Comrade Saliu Bolakale, and Kwara Take-It-Back coordinator Saidu Musa.
The suit, however, has stirred controversy after it was filed without a valid signature or date.
In July 2025, SaharaReporters had reported that the trio were arrested and detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Ilorin after they criticised the state government’s handling of a protest by concerned citizens.
Their arrest followed a complaint of defamation and cyberstalking allegedly filed by Abubakar Sadiq Buhari, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Social Investment.
However, Buhari Olanrewaju Ahmed and Saidu Musa were remanded on July 23, 2025, by a Kwara State Magistrates’ Court.
The case, with Charge No. KWS/259C/25 names the Kwara State Government as the prosecutor and the three activists as defendants, facing four counts.
Speaking on Monday, counsel to the defendants, Taofiq Olateju, condemned the government’s handling of the matter, saying it was flawed from inception.
He disclosed that an application had earlier been made under Section 302 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Kwara State, 2018, compelling the Attorney General and/or the Commissioner of Police, Kwara State, to appear before the court and show cause why the charges should not be terminated against the defendants and the case struck out.
According to him, the application was premised on the fact that the magistrate’s court lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine the allegations against his clients.
Olateju stated that while they were in court this morning, the state counsel representing the Kwara State Government came to serve his clients with a charge.
He said the case had not yet been assigned, so there was no need for them to appear before the court immediately. However, he added that, nevertheless, they had been served and would take the appropriate legal steps.
The authorities in Kwara filed multiple charges against the three individuals, Saliu Bolakale, Buhari Olanrewaju Ahmed, and Saidu Musa, over alleged online publications said to have defamed top government officials and caused public unrest in Ilorin.
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