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Residents of multiple communities in Kwara State‘s Oyun Local Government Area have abandoned their homes, closed schools, and shuttered businesses following the discovery of a threatening letter purportedly from a group calling itself the Nigeria Terrorist Association, which claimed to have relocated from Kaiama Local Government Area and declared its intention to raid the area.
The letter, dropped on Thursday afternoon at a motorcycle park near the central mosque in Ira, is the fourth such threat message circulated across Kwara communities within six days, creating a pattern of intimidation that has paralyzed daily life across the state’s northern and central zones since the February 3 massacre in Woro town, which killed over 176 people and resulted in the abduction of 38 others.
The letter, signed by “The Writer (SANUFH),” read in part: “This message is from Nigeria Terrorist Association, NTA. Our motto: we kill, we kidnapping, and destroying. No town or place that is scared us to destroy… We search and gathering information before we rade.” The authors stated they had left Kaiama and warned that the targeted communities should expect an attack “anytime soon.”
Two men on a motorcycle dropped the letter at the riders’ park near Ira Central Mosque between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. Motorcycle riders initially assumed the document had been left by mistake and held it for the men to return. After reading its contents, they delivered it directly to the king’s palace. By 5:00 p.m., officers from the DSS, Police, and the Nigerian Army were deployed across Ira, Inaja, and Aho.
Despite the security response, panic spread rapidly through the surrounding communities. Oba Wahab Oyetoro, the Oninaja of Inaja, confirmed that residents fled to neighboring towns including Offa. “There is panic everywhere. Schools did not open, businesses are shut, and residents are unable to go to their farms. Security agencies have started patrolling, but fear remains,” he said.
A traditional chief in Ira who spoke on condition of anonymity said the community’s terror was compounded by its proximity to forest belts that armed groups have historically used to move undetected across local government boundaries. “People are afraid. Some have left for nearby towns because we don’t know what is coming,” he said.
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The threat carries particular weight because sources familiar with the situation say the authors previously operated in Kaiama LGA, the same district where the Woro massacre occurred eleven days earlier. That coordinated evening attack on Woro community killed residents indiscriminately, with victims including two wives of the Emir of Woro, several of his children, the Chief Imam, a school principal, a headmistress, and students who had just returned home from school. The Emir, Alhaji Saliu Bio Umar, escaped the attack. The perpetrators are believed to be linked to a Sadiku-led Boko Haram faction with alleged operational ties to Sahel-based terrorist networks.
Kwara State Police Command spokesperson Ejire Adetoun-Adeyemi confirmed receipt of the letter. “Our intelligence unit is currently investigating to ascertain its veracity and possible source. We have intensified patrols by deploying additional personnel, in collaboration with vigilantes, to identify the source of the letter,” she said.
A senior DSS officer separately confirmed the agency was actively working on the matter. “We have received this letter, and we are working on it,” the officer said. A military source confirmed that the Nigerian Army’s Forward Operating Base in Ilemona had increased patrols across threatened communities and that all security agencies had been placed on operational alert.
Oyun LGA Chairman Akanbi Kamar Olarewaju convened an emergency security meeting Friday at the council secretariat in Ilemona, attended by traditional rulers, security agency heads, and key stakeholders. “We urge our people to remain calm, vigilant and to promptly report any strange movement or unfamiliar faces, not only in Ira and Aho/Inaja, but across the entire Oyun Local Government,” his spokesperson said. The Oyun threats are not isolated. Days after the Woro attack, the DSS sent a formal letter dated February 5 to the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, warning of a possible attack by armed men believed to be Mamuda militants gathering around Kiyoru Settlement in Gwanara District, Baruten LGA. The letter, referenced S.122/1/1897 and signed by State DSS Director J.S. Adams, identified forest paths through the Kainji Lake National Park as a likely infiltration route for armed groups operating across the Kwara-Niger state border.
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Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq convened an emergency security council meeting with all state security commanders on Monday evening, reviewing the situation and coordinating responses. Governors Usman Ododo of Kogi State and Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State accompanied Abdulrazaq to visit victims of the Woro attack receiving treatment at the General Hospital in Ilorin.
The Oodua People’s Congress declared a security emergency, urging governors of all Yoruba-speaking states, including Kwara and Kogi, to immediately convene emergency security sessions. OPC National Coordinator Wasiu Afolabi Lawal said the killings were “heartbreaking and provocative,” and demanded that jihadist terrorists be hunted down and neutralized by security agents. “With these rampaging terrorists, bandits and jihadists and their activities, all Nigerians face an existential threat, and all hands must be mobilised,” he said.
Kwara State was long considered relatively insulated from the large-scale terrorist violence that has afflicted Nigeria’s northeast, northwest, and parts of the north-central zone. The Woro massacre and the subsequent wave of threat letters have shattered that perception, exposing the state’s vulnerability as militant groups appear to expand their operational radius southward from their traditional strongholds.
The letter’s authenticity has not been independently verified. Security agencies have not confirmed the existence of a formal organization called the Nigeria Terrorist Association, and no group by that name has previously claimed responsibility for attacks in the region.
