By Ebere Inyama and Ezinwanne Onwuka
(Kwara) Despite reports by the police that the ‘Mahmuda’ terrorist group does not exist, the Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, has ordered troops to flush out the terrorist group from the Kainji forests in Kwara state within one month.
Oluyede gave the order while addressing the troops during his visit to Sobi barracks in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital on 23 April, 2025, exactly five days after militants identifying as “Mahmuda” reportedly killed more than 20 villagers in farming communities tucked between Kwara and Niger states.
“So, you’re out here and I know you can do it to make sure those people (bandits) leave that place for us,” he told the troops.
“In the next one month, I don’t want to see any footprints of those criminals within that Kainji Dam,” the army chief added.
Earlier on 20 April, 2025, the spokesperson of the Kwara State Police Command, Mr. Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, had issued a statement that there is no breach in the state’s internal security and none of the activities of the terror group had been reported in the state.
Ejire-Adeyemi claimed that there was no evidence of insurgent activity, coordinated terrorist formations or mass casualty incidents around the Kainji Lake National Park (KLNP).
But recent intelligence indicates that Mahmuda and his men have pushed even farther southwest into the forests bordering Kwara State, forming alliances with local bandit-terrorists, security experts tell TruthNigeria.
Mahmuda’s parallel government in Kwara state
Locals in Kaima and Baruten counties in Kwara state have reportedly been subjecting themselves to the leadership of the Mahmuda terror group who has devised a system whereby they compel the locals to accept their authority.
For instance, the herders within the Kainji park pay levies to the militants to allow them graze their cattle while the farmers to whom the terrorists allocates farmland within the forest also pay farming levies to them.
The Mahmuda terrorists reportedly regulate the sale of alcohol and adjudicate over civil matters in the area by settling disputes among the residents.
They preach about Islamic ethics to the residents and instruct them to be disloyal to the Nigerian state.
Unconfirmed reports also have it that the Mahmuda Group engage in illegal mining of gold in the park environment.
Nigerian Senate warned about ‘Mahmuda’ 5 years ago
In a motion on 22 June, 2022 titled “worsening insecurity in Kainji Lake National Park and existential threat to communities in Kaima, Baruten and Borgu Local Government in Kwara and Niger States”, the lawmaker representing Kwara North Senatorial District, Senator Sadiq Umar, noted that “Kidnapping and other forms of criminality are becoming a recurring decimal in communities close to the Kainji Lake National Park.” This prompted the Senate to urge the military authorities to carry out a comprehensive onslaught on bandits and other criminal elements within the Kainji Lake National Park.
Mahmuda’s links with Boko Haram, ISIL
“What’s being mistaken for a new terrorist group in North – central Nigeria is the handiwork of a seasoned Boko Haram commander known as “Mahmuda”, according to a report by TruthNiheria.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is forbidden, pledges allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and their primary objective is to overthrow the current Nigerian Government and replace it with a regime based on Islamic law.
The group set off a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) at the UN headquarters in Abuja in August, 2011, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 80.
A purported Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and promised future targeting of US and Nigerian Government interests.
Boko Haram’s capability increased in 2014, with the group kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Borno State and conducting near-daily attacks against Christians, security and police forces, the media, schools, politicians, and Muslims perceived as collaborators
A warning to the United States
With the incursion of the ‘Mahmuda’ terrorists in Kwara state and their recruitment of locals residing in the area, it is just a matter of time before they expand their control in the southwest. Based on their ideology and antecedents, the group could commence attacks on facilities linked to the United States of America if the Nigerian government fails to dislodge them from the region.
In July 2010, Boko Haram’s former second-in-command, Abubakar Shekau, appeared in a video claiming leadership of the group and threatening attacks on Western influences in Nigeria. Later that month, Shekau issued a second statement expressing solidarity with al-Qa‘ida and threatening the United States OF America.
If the Nigerian government continues to treat Mahmuda as a local skirmish, experts warn, it could ignite a full-scale regional crisis.
“Nigeria’s failure to act decisively against this group will jeopardize its standing with global partners, especially the U.S.A,” said Dr. Balogun to TruthNigeria.
The US State Department designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization in November 2013.
Ebere Inyama is an Imo state – based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria. Ezinwanne Onwuka is a Kaduna – based feature writer for TruthNigeria.
