Insecurity: Kogi Imposes Statewide Night Travel Ban, Restricts Fuel Sales After Deadly School Attack

​LOKOJA, NIGERIA — Following a bloody terrorist assault on a secondary school earlier this week, the Kogi State Government has declared a sweeping emergency security regime. The new directives include a statewide ban on night travel after 7:00 p.m., the total shutdown of local markets, and a strict embargo on the sale of petroleum products in jerricans across the affected areas.

​The aggressive counter-measures follow a targeted attack on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at Government Secondary School in Iluke Bunu, located within the Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area. Armed bandits, operating on roughly 40 motorcycles, stormed the school premises at around 10:00 a.m. while students were actively writing their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) English Language paper.

​Though a combined force of police, military, and local vigilantes successfully repelled the invaders and thwarted a massive student abduction plot, the raid claimed three civilian lives. The victims were identified as Mr. Ganiyu Anifowose, the Vice Principal of UBE Secondary/Primary School, Iluke; a 70-year-old resident, Mr. Sunday Jacob Alhassan; and a six-year-old child, Sunday Ayele. One bandit was neutralized in the ensuring gun duel.

​On Friday, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo paid an assessment visit to the grieving Iluke community, vowing that the state would never surrender to terror. Less than 24 hours later, the state government rolled out severe logistical restrictions aimed at suffocating the criminal supply chain.

​In an official statement signed by the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Hon. Kingsley Femi Fanwo, authorities revealed that Joint Security Forces have pinned down several injured bandits within the forested corridors of the Bunu District. To prevent these trapped elements from accessing essential logistics, the government has choked off local supply networks.

​”Intelligence available to security agencies has revealed that motorcycle operators constitute a major channel through which food items, water, drugs, and other logistics are transported to bandits hiding within the forests,” Fanwo stated. He added that criminals have routinely weaponized commercial motorcycles to execute reconnaissance missions ahead of community raids.

​Effective immediately, the operations of commercial motorcycles, locally known as Okada, have been banned across major rural arteries in the Bunu hinterlands. The affected boundaries include the Idoyi Bunu–Illah Bunu–Iluke Bunu–Kiri corridor, alongside the expansive route connecting Odai, Igbo, Ilogun, Olle, Ayede, Oke-Ofin, and Edumo Bunu communities. The prohibition additionally sweeps across the Ayede Bunu, Aherin, Eshi, and Ighun Bunu axes.

​To seal the blockade, all markets operating along these rural corridors have been shut down until further notice. Traveling medicine distributors have also been ordered to suspend drug sales via motorcycles in the area.

​Furthermore, to starve the bandits of fuel for their fleets, the state government has strictly banned the purchase of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel) in jerricans across the entirety of the Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area—a move expected to temporarily impact local farmers and small business operators relying on generators.

​Taking the security protocols a step further, the state executive expanded its curfew beyond the conflict zone, imposing a blanket ban on night travels across all state-owned roads throughout Kogi State. All vehicular movements on state highways must grind to a halt by 7:00 p.m. daily. The government warned that anyone caught violating the curfew or operating a motorcycle along the restricted Bunu corridors will face swift arrest and prosecution under the Kogi State Anti-Terrorism Law.

​The Motorcycle Operators Association of Nigeria (MOAN) has been instructed to instantly sensitize its members regarding compliance.

ADVERTISEMENT

​Acknowledging the severe strain these measures will place on ordinary citizens, Commissioner Fanwo emphasized that extraordinary challenges demand difficult decisions. He noted that the government possesses credible intelligence on local saboteurs collaborating with the bandits and warned that accomplices would be prosecuted as terrorists.

​The state government has committed to reviewing the impact of these emergency restrictions every two weeks, pledging to ease or adjust the policies depending on the progress recorded by security operatives in the ongoing forest clearance campaigns.