Owa-Onire: A Ghost Town and One Man Left Behind
*“Everyone ran. Lekan stayed. Now he’s the only name left to answer when the wind calls Owa-Onire.”*
When the security team of 100 men from the drone unit, MOPOL, and the Anti-Kidnapping Squad rolled into Owa-Onire today, they found nothing but silence. No markets, no voices, no children. Just empty compounds, a locked mosque, a quiet church, and one man standing in the middle of it all.
The operation is part of the Inspector General of Police’s push to screen the Kwara South forest belts. Ifelodun, Isin, Oke-Ero, Ekiti LGAs — troops are moving through all of them. But Owa-Onire stopped them cold. A town wiped clean.
The only person left is Lekan, a prince of the town. He calls himself “the landlord” now, and the title fits. The big mansion, the abandoned houses, the mosque, the church — all of it belongs to the crickets and to him.
He didn’t stay out of courage. He stayed because “Bororo’s War” took everyone else. It didn’t start with one attack. Bandits came and came again. Kidnappings became routine. Then they took the monarch himself and held him in the forest for months until a ransom was paid. After that, the people couldn’t take it anymore. They locked their doors and left. Some went to Okeonigbin. Most just disappeared into somewhere safer.
Owa-Onire isn’t alone. At least 28 communities in Ifelodun LGA are deserted. The same fate has swallowed Oro-Ago, Omugo, Ahun, Oke-Oyan, Owa-Kajola, Owa-Onire, and Oba in Isin LGA. Residents say over 23 villages have been overrun by suspected bandits. Ancestral homes stand empty. Farms rot. Towns become names on a map with no one to say them.
Lekan eats from his farm. That’s how he survives. There’s nowhere to buy food here, nowhere to buy anything. He’s alone with his land and the memory of a town that used to be alive.
The team leader handed him ₦10,000. Lekan took it quietly. He said he’d go to Okeonigbin to buy foodstuffs — the nearest place that still has a market.
He also told them people came into the community last night. He doesn’t know who they were or what they took. He just knows he heard them, and in the morning, nothing had changed. He was still alone.
Visibly disturbed by what they saw, the senior officers from Abuja and Lagos said no Nigerian community should be reduced to this. They described Owa-Onire’s abandonment as a failure that demands immediate action, and pledged to push for sustained security presence and concrete measures that will allow displaced residents to return home without fear.
— Elder Oyin Zubair.
I was randomly thinking about this Riquelme guy, and how he said he was gonna sign Haaland if he wins😭
He wanted to use Florentino Perez’ playbook on him😂😂
In year 2000, Perez told the Real Madrid socios to vote for him for president, that if he wins, he’ll sign Luis Figo😂
You know the crazy part? The sitting president had won two champions league in 3 years. In fact, they just won a champions league, he was successful. You wonder how Perez was going to unseat him 😂
Figo was the best player in the world, in fact, he won BDOR later that year, and he was a Barcelona player. Perez had to look for something to say to convince people to vote him and not vote a successful president.
Then he came up with a masterplan, he said if he wins the election, he’ll sign Figo. In fact, he said the best players ought to be playing for Real Madrid and he’ll bring them here, that was the start of the Galacticos era (Zidane, Delima, Beckham, etc joined after Figo…up till Cristiano, Kaka, Mbappe…till date, Perez has kept that word).
Signing Figo was an impossible feat. Figo was a Barcelona player, it’s impossible…and Figo had a release clause of 60m. No player has ever been signed for that amount. Record sale was Christian Vieri for £30 to Inter Milan.
Figo loved Barcelona, he was a god there, how will Perez convince him to sign? No top Barcelona player should move to Real Madrid. If you want to understand better, think of Messi in his prime going to Real Madrid, exactly!!!
First thing Perez did was call Paulo Futre who was a friend to Figo. He told him the plan, Futre then got in touch with Figo’s agent, Jose Veiga.
FP promised them some mad money, he said if they can make the deal happen, Futre will get 1.5m euros and Veiga will get 3m euros, which they eventually both got.
Futre was also the reason Veiga got up to that amount, because he lied to Perez that Veiga wanted more money as agent commission😅, he didn’t only lie to Perez, he lied to Figo’s agent and deceived him to sign a pre-contract.
Veiga couldn’t resist that money, Figo will also be paid x4 of the wages he was earning at Barcelona. Veiga was desperate for Figo to join. Figo did not sign any pre-contract, it was his agent, Veiga…Veiga claimed he got a go ahead from Figo to sign it, but Figo denied it.
This is where it gets crazy, the pre-contract agreement that Veiga signed on behalf of Figo had a clause. Gosh Perez is crazy. Perez included a clause that if he wins the presidency, and Figo doesn’t come to Madrid, Figo/Veiga will pay him 30m euros😂😂😂, and Veiga signed it.
When Veiga told Figo about Madrid’s interest, Figo told him to meet Barcelona’s hierarchy to tell them about the fact that a club (no mention of Real Madrid) was willing to pay off his release clause, but he doesn’t want to leave Barcelona, so they should improve his contract.
Gaspert was Vice President of Barcelona then, and was contesting for presidency too. He called whatever Veiga told him a bluff, no one could pay that release clause, they also just improved Figo’s contract a year before, so he felt Figo was greedy.
Anyways, the media started the rumour, it’s one of the craziest saga in football history. Figo was the biggest player in the world, everywhere went crazy. They would capture Figo’s agent in meetings with Perez, they would monitor Figo everywhere. Real Madrid players like Roberto Carlos and Hierro said they never believed it was going to happen.
Figo felt under-appreciated because the hierarchy weren’t taking him seriously, but he still didn’t want to leave.
Perez had now won the election. Figo said he’s not leaving Barcelona. Perez then asked Veiga to pay the 30m😂
Veiga almost ran mad, where would he get that money? Figo didn’t care, he wasn’t the one that signed the pre-contract. Veiga had to beg Figo to please go to Madrid, or if he wasn’t gonna go, can he just have a meeting with Perez to just talk things out.
Figo decided to meet with Perez, who convinced👇🏽
The world most brutal Prison
CECOT/ Terrorism Containment Center (El Salvador)
Built recently as part of El Salvador's massive crackdown on gang violence, CECOT is the largest prison in the Americas, designed to hold tens of thousands of high-ranking criminals
Olayinka Ayanlade, Police PRO, Oyo State, narrates how the police rescued Ex-minister Adelabu's sister and her twin sons after they were kidnapped.
#CTVMorningBrief
This brings me back to our argument about professional and unprofessional players.
I told you people that the difference between professionals and unprofessionals is fitness, not talent. People kept arguing that you can't be better than anybody in Europe. What you lack is opportunity. Who don sabi don sabi. Football is a gift.
Zadok had not played one minute of professional football in Nigeria. He was spotted by a scout and sent to Sweden to play with and against professionals. In a year, his impact in Sweden got him a big move to Brighton.
From grassroot to dominating Swedish top league to moving to Brighton. "The best player in Nigeria cannot be better than the lowest ranked player in division 3" una. Go pursue am na
JUST IN 🚨
Faces of the suspected kidnappers arrested during the rescue operation that freed Chief Adebayo Adelabu’s sister, Mrs. Olaide Busayo Adegoke John-Paul, and her twin sons after days in captivity.
🚨 Mogaji Igbinsola Sunday drops a bombshell: Excos were allegedly offered ₦100m and an SUV each to sell Accord Party.
If this allegation is true, then democracy is under attack. The people deserve the truth! #OyoPolitics#AccordParty
On the Oriire banditry, nobody will tell you that once kidnappers dey speak Yoruba, Hausa and pidgin, you should know it's a reflection of the ills in the system. It's political and it's lucrative.
Governments need to declare a state of emergency on banditry and kidnapping... That can only be done with both FG and state working together effectively to combat this menace.
But quite frankly, that's not the case with the political moves of the state governor recently when he went all blazing against the FG on the issue of state police and Amotekun setup.
It's the election season and we all know the trend, the Christmas season is for the ritualists and election season is for the former insurgent, now bandits and kidnappers
🚨 EXCL: Manchester City submit opening offer to Nottingham Forest for Elliot Anderson. #MCFC bid rejected by #NFFC but pursuit ongoing. Club bosses spoke at UEFA dinner last week (no suggestion it was to negotiate deal). W/ @lauriewhitwell@TheAthleticFC https://t.co/ZCZbfRgZLY