Kogi State authorities announced on Tuesday that joint security forces are closing in on bandits responsible for recent church attacks in Yagba and Kabba-Bunu, with four assailants already killed and abducted worshippers expected to be rescued soon.

Information Commissioner Kingsley Fanwo, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, said some kidnapped worshippers from the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Yagba have already been rescued, while others are expected to be freed imminently.

He clarified that in the Aiyetoro Kiri ECWA Church attack on Sunday, 13 worshippers were abducted rather than the 20 initially reported, and that local hunters engaged the attackers in a gun battle, killing four bandits while others fled wounded.

Fanwo stressed that no worshippers were killed in the incident, noting that the four fatalities were bandits.

Governor Usman Ododo has mobilised a multi-agency task force including the Army’s 12 Brigade, DSS, Police, NSCDC, and local hunters, with requests for Nigerian Air Force aerial support to pursue the attackers into forest hideouts. Fanwo attributed the attacks to displaced bandits fleeing intensified operations in neighbouring states, now targeting remote churches as “soft” sites.

He further claimed that intelligence operations have prevented dozens of other incidents, saying, “For every incident, we’ve averted 30 others through intelligence,” and promised “revelations that will shake the country” within 24 hours.

Kogi’s geography, sharing borders with 10 states, makes it a spillover corridor for criminal groups, but officials insist the state’s security architecture is holding. The attacks have heightened fears among rural congregations, underscoring the vulnerability of remote communities to banditry, while civil society groups continue to call for stronger early-warning systems and sustained protection of worship centres.