LOKOJA, Nigeria — Gunmen have killed Ishaq Yunusa, chairman of Nigeria’s governing All Progressives Congress in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi state and abducted another person traveling with him, police said. The attack occurred at about 5 p.m. Thursday near Ojuwo Olijo along the Itobe-Ochadamu Expressway in neighboring Ofu Local Government Area, adding to a series of violent attacks on travelers in the north-central state.
Police spokesperson Afusat Saliu said armed men emerged from surrounding bushland and opened fire on motorists. Officers later discovered a blue Toyota Corolla abandoned on the highway, with Yunusa dead inside. “Another occupant was taken into the bush by the assailants,” the police statement said. Yunusa’s body was taken to Grimard Hospital in Anyigba for an autopsy, while security forces began searching nearby forests for the abducted passenger and those responsible for the attack.
Kogi Police Commissioner Naziru Bello Kankarofi ordered sustained security operations along the corridor and directed officers to pursue all available leads. Authorities also appealed to residents and motorists to report suspicious activity. Kogi Gov. Ahmed Usman Ododo, speaking through his deputy at Yunusa’s burial Friday in Anyigba, described the killing as a “painful loss” to his family, the APC and the people of the state and promised stronger measures against criminal groups operating along the Itobe-Anyigba route.
The killing occurred only a day after gunmen attacked two buses along the Aloma-Egane Expressway, also in Ofu, and abducted passengers, many of them National Youth Service Corps members traveling from an orientation camp in Bayelsa state toward Abuja. Police later said 11 victims, including the two drivers, had been rescued while searches continued for others. The attacks on successive days have heightened concern over the safety of major roads crossing Kogi, a strategically located state connecting Nigeria’s northern and southern regions.
Highway kidnapping has become part of a broader security crisis that has affected Nigeria for years, alongside an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed criminal groups in the northwest and communal violence in parts of the country’s central region. Forested terrain near highways has provided armed groups with places to hide after attacks, complicating rescue operations. Kogi’s location near Abuja and along important interstate transport routes means persistent insecurity there can disrupt passenger movement, commerce and the distribution of goods between several parts of Africa’s most populous country.
The latest attack also carries political significance because Yunusa was a local leader of the APC, the party of President Bola Tinubu, as Nigeria approaches the 2027 general election with insecurity expected to be a major campaign issue. Nigeria is West Africa’s largest economy and an important regional power, and persistent kidnapping threatens investment, transportation and regional trade while increasing pressure on the government to demonstrate that security forces can protect civilians outside major cities. Police had not announced any arrests or identified a motive for Yunusa’s killing, and no group had publicly claimed responsibility as the search for the abducted passenger continued.
