‘Pay or die’: Nigeria’s gunmen turn on local leaders

On a warm February night, gunmen stormed the palace of Olufemi Adewumi, the traditional ruler of Owo, in South West Nigeria. They fired into the air, overpowered local guards and abducted the monarch from his residence. Attacks on local officials show the limits of a response measured only in troop deployments.

For hours, frightened residents searched in the dark. They eventually found his body a few metres from the palace. The killing jolted Owo, a town still marked by the massacre at St Francis Catholic Church in June 2022, when suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters killed worshippers during Sunday mass.

“We were all scared when we realised the king had been killed,” said Ajakore Paul*, a resident who joined the search. “That night, some of the king’s relatives and people around the palace could not stay, fearing the gunmen might return.”

The attack was not an isolated outrage. Across Nigeria, gunmen, bandits, jihadists and other armed groups are increasingly targeting the people who embody the state in rural communities: village heads, traditional rulers, councillors, local government officials and other grassroots intermediaries.

Non-state armed groups are main drivers of violence

An April 2026 report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project said Nigeria led Africa in attacks on local officials, with incidents rising from 137 in 2024 to 141 in 2025. ACLED defines the category broadly, covering local-level officials such as village heads, mayors, councillors and election workers.

Its Africa analysis said non-state armed groups were the main drivers of this violence, and that Nigeria, Ethiopia and Cameroon were among the worst-affected countries to record increases in 2025.

“Most of these events were not related to mass abductions, pointing to a deliberate strategy to directly target officials, especially village leaders,” said Christian Jaffe, an ACLED research analyst.

The scale of the threat has become harder to dismiss

The pattern matters because Nigeria’s insecurity is usually measured in bodies, territory and ransom payments. But attacks on local officials point to a quieter crisis: the erosion of state authority. In rural Nigeria, village heads and traditional rulers mediate disputes, relay warnings to security agencies, organise vigilantes, manage land conflicts and connect communities to government. Once they are killed, abducted or forced to flee, armed groups can deal directly with frightened communities.

In the North West, the pressure often comes through ransom, cattle rustling and control of rural roads. Last year, armed bandits attacked Kurawa village in Sokoto after local vigilantes briefly resisted them. They killed three people, including the acting village head, and abducted residents while rustling about 40 cattle.

In the North Central belt, attacks are entangled with farmer-herder conflict, jihadist spillover and organised kidnapping. In January, James Jatau, the village head of Hurra in Bassa, was killed in an ambush by armed pastoralists while returning from a meeting.

Jihadist militants

In Kwara, a western state increasingly exposed to armed groups pushing south from older conflict zones, the scale of the threat has become harder to dismiss. In February, more than 160 people were killed in attacks on Woro and Nuku villages.

Reuters reported that President Bola Tinubudeployed a military battalion to the area after the attack, which officials linked to jihadist militants. The Guardian reported that Woro’s traditional chief lost two sons in the attack, while his wife and daughters were abducted.

I found myself in a hideout where they demanded ₦40m as ransom

By April, local newspapers were reporting that more than 30 traditional rulers in Kwara South had fled their palaces after a wave of kidnappings and killings – a sign that armed groups do not need to hold territory formally to empty it of authority. For some attackers, the objective is ransom. For others, it is punishment, deterrence or control. Often, it is all three.

Last month, Dimeji Olawuwo*, a village head in South Western Nigeria, was attacked at home by unknown gunmen. His guards were quickly overpowered. He was dragged into a jeep as his three wives and five children cried out behind him.

“I was blindfolded and taken deep into the forest,” Olawuwo told The Africa Report. “After two days, I found myself in a hideout where they demanded ₦40m as ransom.” He said he told them he did not have the money. One of the men shouted back: “Pay or die.”

Little government presence

That demand exposed one of the contradictions of the violence. Traditional rulers may carry symbolic authority, but many local officials are poorly paid. Some earn or receive support of roughly ₦50,000 to ₦300,000 a month, depending on their status and local arrangements. Olawuwo said he had no other job. He declined to say how he was freed.

Analysts say ransom is only the surface economy. “These local leaders represent state authority in areas with little government presence,” said Kabir Adamu of Beacon Consulting. “When they are attacked, it shows communities that the state cannot protect even its own people.”

The effect is cumulative. Local officials stop travelling. Communities delay market days. Schools and clinics close after threats. Farmers negotiate access to fields. Residents pay levies to avoid raids. Vigilantes retreat or splinter. In some areas, armed groups impose informal taxes and control movement through forests and rural roads.

“The accumulation of wealth allowed bandits to establish shadow governance structures in ungoverned spaces and thrive in their lucrative enterprise of crime,” said Samuel Aruwan, former Kaduna State commissioner for internal security.

Tinubu’s government has acknowledged the wider security emergency. In November 2025, the president declared a nationwide security emergency, ordered extra recruitment into the police and armed forces, authorised the police to recruit an additional 20,000 officers and directed the Department of State Services to deploy trained forest guards against terrorists and bandits hiding in forests.

Political consequences

Nigeria’s local rulers are exposed precisely because they live where the state is thinnest. They are visible enough to be targeted, but rarely protected enough to withstand a raid. That weakness also has political consequences.

The state may be present, but it is not necessarily in control

Traditional rulers and village heads help organise voter registration, polling access, local mediation and informal intelligence flows. If they are intimidated before the 2027 elections, insecurity could distort not only rural life but political competition itself.

The Nigerian government did not respond to requests for comment.

Olawuwo believes attacks on local authorities will continue because they generate fear beyond the immediate victim. “Insecurity is rising,” he said. “As subjects will be taken, local leaders will also be attacked more [frequently].”

In Owo, the killing of Adewumi sent the same message. The palace was not just a home. It was a symbol of order. Once gunmen could enter it, abduct its occupant and leave his body nearby, they had already shown the community what they wanted it to understand: the state may be present, but it is not necessarily in control.

*Names have been changed or withheld for security reasons.   (The Africa Report)