Residents of border communities in Nasarawa State are describing in alarming detail how armed groups move freely through forest routes linking their state to Benue, using well-known trails, an abandoned railway line and a network of makeshift camps to launch attacks and disappear before security forces can respond.
According to a Vanguard report, their accounts, corroborated by security disclosures from neighbouring Kogi State, point to a growing crisis that cuts across state boundaries and is outpacing the government’s response.
“The routes are not hidden”
Chief Denen Gbongbon, who leads the United Farmers Association in Kadarko, Keana Local Government Area, said the movement of armed groups through communities in Obi, Keana and Doma has been going on for years.
“The routes are very clear. They are not hidden,” he said. “They come in through Barkin Coaltar, penetrate toward Torkura and from there move straight into Benue.”
He described the Akala forest in Obi LGA as a major staging ground, with armed men camping there before fanning out into surrounding communities. He said the groups also exploit an abandoned railway corridor, following the tracks into Benue and expanding their operations from there.
What makes the situation particularly striking is how openly the armed men move. “As they are moving, we are seeing them. Sometimes they carry arms openly. Sometimes they come with cattle. At other times, they ride Bajaj motorcycles, three persons per bike,” Gbongbon said.
He also said local farmers routinely pass intelligence to security agencies, but that little action follows. “It appears security is not ready to follow up. That is their major route; they keep passing there,” he said. “Government is fully aware. We have written severally to the Nasarawa State Government, to the local governments, to the governor himself. How can the government pretend not to be aware?”
Allegations of complicity among traditional rulers
Gbongbon went further, accusing some local chiefs in boundary communities of actively enabling the armed groups. He alleged that certain Alago chiefs sold land belonging to Tiv and Eggon farmers to the gunmen, who then brought in militias to protect their new holdings.
Also, he alleged that some traditional rulers misled security operatives by tipping off bandits ahead of operations and directing soldiers away from actual camp locations.
He referenced the arrest of a local official in Kadarko in connection with killings in Yelwata in June 2025, claiming that more than 26 AK-47 rifles were reportedly recovered from his camp. Efforts to get a response from the accused traditional rulers were unsuccessful.
A humanitarian catastrophe unfolding quietly
The violence has driven mass displacement. Gbongbon said 14,318 registered internally displaced persons (IDPs) are from the affected communities alone. “If you go there now, you won’t find inhabitants. Only bandits are occupying the area,” he said.
Displaced residents are sleeping in schools, churches, market stalls and grain stores. One resident, Sampson Akaa of Umaraye village, described returning home in January after being told it was safe — only for armed men to attack his community at a nearby river. His wife was among the first targeted. Four people were killed, and one remains missing.
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Kogi: a refuge for displaced bandits
In Kogi, authorities have openly acknowledged that the state’s forests are being used as a sanctuary by armed groups pushed southward by military operations in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna.
Governor Ahmed Ododo also recently confirmed that bandit leaders had relocated into Kogi’s forests. “We will take the fight to them in their hideouts. We will not wait for them to attack us,” he said.
Kogi’s Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, described what he called a “hibernation cycle” — where gangs carry out attacks elsewhere, then retreat into Kogi’s forests to rest and regroup before striking again. He said the spillover was coming primarily through Kwara and Niger into Bassa and Anyigba areas.
Security agencies have conducted joint air and ground operations across several local government areas in Kogi, making arrests and recovering weapons. Entire communities have been evacuated. But kidnappings continue along major roads, markets have been shut, and schools have been temporarily closed.
A regional problem without a regional solution
Security analysts say the forests stretching across Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Niger and Kwara form an interconnected belt that armed groups exploit with considerable sophistication. Sustained pressure in one state, they warn, simply pushes the problem into the next — as events in Kogi have demonstrated.
However, for the people living in the middle of it, the analysis matters less than the outcome. “We are tired,” Gbongbon said. “We just want our people to go back to their farms and live without fear.”
