Some group of angry Youths in Eruku, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, on Wednesday barricaded the Ilorin–Kabba highway in protest over Tuesday night’s deadly bandit attack on the community, accusing security agencies of abandoning residents during the assault.
Reports gathered by First Daily correspondent revealed that the protest started in the early hours of November 19, and caused a major gridlock along the busy road.
In a video cited by our correspondent on Wednesday, dozens of trailers and commercial vehicles heading toward Kogi State were stranded as protesters lit bonfires and used stones and logs to block the expressway.
Residents said the attack, which occurred during a church programme, lasted almost an hour without any response from security operatives stationed in the area.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Adekimi Ojo, who visited Eruku on Wednesday alongside the Kwara State Director of the Department of State Services, appealed for calm and promised a decisive response.
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The CP said additional personnel would be deployed to reinforce the Eruku Division. He also announced plans to station an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in the community.
“We will bring the perpetrators to justice. We are deploying more men and resources to secure this area,” he assured the protesters.
The attack on Eruku is the latest in a series of violent incidents in Kwara’s border communities, raising fresh concerns over insecurity in the Middle Belt corridor.
