Oyo in the Grip of Fear: Kidnappings Surge, Families Weep — and Governor Makinde Holds Town Halls

On the morning of April 14, 2026, Alhaja Ramota Adewale left her farm in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, the same way she had left it every morning for thirty-one years. She did not return.

Her family received a phone call that evening. The voice on the other end demanded five million naira. They had seventy-two hours.

Alhaja Ramota is not alone. In the first five months of 2026, The Trojan Beast has documented at least 47 confirmed kidnapping incidents across Oyo State — in Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso, and along the Ibadan-Ijebu Ode expressway. Security sources who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity put the actual figure significantly higher, noting that many rural families pay ransoms quietly and never report to police out of fear of retaliation.

"They took my husband at 6am. He was going to check on the cassava. The police told us to be patient. Patient for what? He has been gone for three weeks."

— Wife of a kidnap victim, Ibarapa North LGA, name withheld for safety

A Pattern the Government Cannot Explain Away

The geography of the crisis is not random. Ibarapa — the agricultural heartland of Oyo State — has become the epicentre of a kidnapping epidemic that began in earnest in 2021 and has accelerated sharply in 2025 and 2026. Fulani herder-farmer tensions, which the state government has consistently refused to address with any structural seriousness, have provided cover for criminal gangs who now operate with a sophistication that suggests organisation, not opportunism.

The Oke-Ogun zone — Saki, Iseyin, Igboho — has seen a parallel surge. Farmers who once worked their land freely now hire informal security escorts. Some have abandoned their farms entirely. The economic consequences for a state that prides itself on agricultural investment are severe and growing.

On the Ibadan-Ijebu Ode expressway, three separate kidnapping incidents were recorded between January and April 2026 alone. Commuters travelling between Oyo and Ogun states have begun avoiding the route after dark. Transporters have raised fares to cover what they describe as "danger allowances."

What Has Governor Makinde Actually Done?

Governor Seyi Makinde has not been silent. That much must be acknowledged. He has convened security meetings. He has issued statements. He has, on at least four occasions in 2026 alone, stood before cameras and described the security situation as a priority.

But statements are not strategy. And press conferences are not policing.

The Oyo State Security Network — popularly known as Amotekun — was established in 2020 with considerable fanfare as the South-West's answer to the security vacuum created by an overstretched and underfunded Nigeria Police Force. In Oyo State, Amotekun has struggled with funding gaps, equipment shortages, and a persistent lack of coordination with federal security agencies. Multiple Amotekun operatives who spoke to The Trojan Beast described a corps that is "doing its best with nothing."

"We have motorcycles that have not been serviced in eight months. We have operatives covering three local governments with one working radio. And then the governor holds a press conference and says security is a priority."

— Senior Amotekun operative, Oyo State (identity protected)

The state government's 2026 security budget, reviewed by The Trojan Beast, allocates ₦4.2 billion to the Ministry of Security and Strategy. Of that figure, ₦1.8 billion is earmarked for personnel costs, leaving ₦2.4 billion for operations, equipment, and intelligence. Security analysts who reviewed the figures described the operational allocation as "wholly inadequate for a state of Oyo's size and current threat level."

The Ibarapa Question Makinde Has Never Answered

The most politically sensitive dimension of the Oyo security crisis is the one the governor has been most reluctant to confront directly: the role of armed herder gangs in the Ibarapa kidnapping epidemic.

In 2021, Dr. Sunday Adeyemo — known as Sunday Igboho — issued an ultimatum to Fulani herders in Ibarapa, accusing them of sponsoring kidnappings and killings. The federal government responded by declaring Igboho a wanted man. Governor Makinde, caught between federal pressure and the legitimate grievances of his constituents, issued carefully worded statements that satisfied no one.

Five years later, the underlying tension has not been resolved. It has deepened. Farmers in Ibarapa describe a situation in which they cannot identify who is kidnapping them, cannot trust that reports to police will be acted upon, and cannot access any state-sponsored mechanism for conflict resolution between farming and herding communities.

The governor's office did not respond to The Trojan Beast's request for comment on the specific question of herder-farmer conflict resolution mechanisms in Ibarapa.

Families Left to Negotiate Alone

Perhaps the most damning indictment of the state's security response is what happens after a kidnapping is reported.

Multiple families who spoke to The Trojan Beast described a consistent pattern: they report to the police, are told the matter is being investigated, hear nothing for days, and ultimately negotiate and pay ransom without any meaningful police intervention. In several cases, families were explicitly advised by police officers — off the record — to pay quickly and quietly.

One family in Ogbomoso paid ₦3.5 million for the release of a 58-year-old retired teacher abducted in February. They borrowed the money from relatives and a cooperative society. The police, they say, never made contact with the kidnappers. The teacher was released after eleven days. He has not left his house since.

"The government did not rescue my father. We rescued him. We paid. Now we are in debt. And the men who took him are still out there."

— Son of kidnap victim, Ogbomoso (name withheld)

The Political Calculation Behind the Silence

Governor Makinde is widely regarded as one of the PDP's most politically astute operators. His 2023 re-election, achieved in a state where the Labour Party wave was strong, demonstrated genuine organisational skill and a broad coalition.

But political skill and governance are not the same thing. And observers who have watched Makinde closely suggest that his handling of the security crisis reflects a deliberate political calculation: avoid any action that could be framed as ethnically targeted, maintain federal relationships that are necessary for resource flows, and manage the optics of security without taking the political risks that genuine structural reform would require.

That calculation may be understandable. It is not acceptable.

The people of Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun, and Ogbomoso are not asking for perfect security. They are asking for a governor who treats their abducted relatives with the same urgency he brings to infrastructure ribbon-cuttings and party congresses.

What Must Change

The Trojan Beast is not in the business of writing government policy. But the evidence gathered in this investigation points clearly to several failures that the Makinde administration must answer for.

Amotekun is underfunded and under-equipped. The state's intelligence-sharing relationship with the Nigeria Police Force and the DSS is broken. There is no functioning community-based early warning system in the highest-risk LGAs. And there is no transparent public accounting of how many kidnapping cases have been resolved through security intervention — as opposed to family ransom payments — since 2023.

Until those questions are answered with data, not press releases, the families of Oyo State's kidnapping victims will continue to do what Alhaja Ramota's family did: wait by the phone, borrow money they do not have, and pray that the government they elected eventually remembers they exist.

"We voted for him. We celebrated when he won. Now we just want to know: does he know our names? Does he know we are here?"

— Community leader, Ibarapa North LGA