By Isa Abdul, Abuja

Unknown gunmen have reportedly killed two people and abducted many other travellers and residents in Ayegunle Bunu, Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

According to residents, the attack occurred in the early hours of Monday when the gunmen invaded the community, blocked the major road passing through the town while they operated.

The attackers allegedly opened fire indiscriminately on arrival, causing panic and forcing many residents to flee.

“The attack happened around 2.25am. The sound of gunfire woke us up. The gunmen killed two residents and injured several others,” according to a community source.

The source added that two residents were abducted from their homes, while several passengers travelling in commercial vehicles were also kidnapped after running into the gang’s roadblock.

The exact number of abducted persons and other details surrounding the incident have remained unclear.

But Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Naziru Kankarofi, confirmed knowledge of the attack, explaining that the criminals blocked the highway linking Ayegunle Bunu to neighbouring communities before abducting several travellers:

“Some people were injured during the attack. Our operatives responded promptly after receiving the report, and investigations have commenced.”

Saliu Oyiza Afusat, Kogi state Police spokesman, further confirmed that the two victims killed were a pastor who was attacked in his residence and a passenger travelling in a vehicle.

Relatedly, troops of the 12 Brigade, Nigerian Army, on Monday said they rescued 23 kidnapped passengers following a swift counter-kidnapping operation along the Ayegunle–Bunu Road in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

Troops stationed within Kabba metropolis responded immediately after receiving a distress call at about 3:30 am and moved to the scene of the attack.

Although the kidnappers had fled before the arrival of security personnel, the troops promptly commenced an aggressive pursuit along the suspected escape routes of the criminals.

The sustained pressure from the pursuing troops forced the kidnappers to abandon 23 captives, who were subsequently rescued unharmed.

The Army said troops have continued to dominate the area and are conducting intensive search-and-rescue operations to locate and safely recover any remaining victims who may still be in captivity.

–Calls for redefinition of beauty

Amid growing concern over the widespread use of skin-lightening products in Nigeria, a leading researcher is turning academic insight into real-world action, calling for a cultural shift in how beauty and identity are defined.

Olabanke Oyinkansola Goriola knows what it means to leave home in pursuit of answers and to come back with the responsibility to act on them. A PhD Candidate in Performance Studies at Northwestern University in the United States, she is one of a rare breed: a Nigerian scholar who has dedicated her entire academic career to understanding why so many of her people are changing their skin, and what it will take to change that.

Her academic journey spans three continents and four completed degrees, with a fifth currently underway. Beginning with a First-Class Honours degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan, where she was named Best Graduating Student and Student of the Year in the Department of Theatre Arts and was awarded the prestigious 2016 National Council for Arts and Culture Prize, she went on to earn three master’s degrees. The first was completed through the European Union Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, one of the world’s most competitive international postgraduate awards, which took her across four European universities.

A second Master’s was completed at the University of Edinburgh on the prestigious Kirby Laing Foundation Scholarship.

Her third master’s degree in performance studies is from Northwestern University in the United States, where she is now completing her doctoral degree. At Northwestern, she has been inducted into the Edward Alexander Bouchet Honor Society, one of the most distinguished graduate honours in American academia and has received more than 20 competitive grants and fellowships.

After years of studying abroad, she says, the urgency of the crisis demanded direct intervention within the communities most affected.

“I spent years abroad studying why our people are harming themselves to change their skin. The research was necessary. But the answers need to be applied here, at home, where the problem lives. That is why I came back.”

Her research frames skin bleaching not as an isolated trend but as a consequence of historical and cultural forces that continue to shape perceptions of beauty. Nigeria leads all of Africa in skin-whitening product use, with 77% of Nigerian women using these products regularly, according to the World Health Organization — the highest rate on the continent.

“As I argued in my 2025 essay published in The Republic, one of Nigeria’s foremost intellectual magazines, Nigeria’s skin-bleaching epidemic is a symptom of colonial legacies, global beauty standards, and capitalist structures” She stated.

The drive to bleach one’s skin does not begin with a product. It begins with a culture that teaches people, from childhood, that their dark skin is a disadvantage.”

Goriola stressed that addressing the crisis requires more than regulating products or enforcing bans.

“That is the root we must address.” She said, emphasizing the need for deeper societal reflection and transformation.

Her work also highlights the role of media in reinforcing these harmful standards, pointing to how visual culture consistently elevates lighter skin tones as the standard of beauty and desirability.

“hrough her nonprofit, The Shade Initiative for Cultural and Social Empowerment, she is working to shift these narratives through research, education, cultural intervention, storytelling, public advocacy, community engagement and empowerment.

The organisation focuses on generating evidence, shifting public narratives, supporting communities to build more just and affirming understandings of beauty, identity, and value and challenging long-standing biases embedded in society.

Goriola believes that meaningful change must involve both policy and cultural interventions working together. She also argues that conversations around colourism must be reframed to recognise its structural nature rather than reducing it to personal choice.

She has presented her research at international conferences in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Canada, and has published in The Republic magazine, establishing herself as a leading scholarly voice on colourism and skin-bleaching practices in African contexts.

Her growing influence in academic and public spaces reflects a broader demand for solutions grounded in both research and lived realities.

As debates around identity, representation, and beauty continue to evolve, her voice stands out as a powerful call for Nigeria to rethink its values and embrace a more inclusive definition of beauty.

*Recovers large arms cache- 15AK rifles, 1434 live ammunition

The November 21, 2025 attackers on St. Mary’s Catholic school in Papiri village, Niger State, abducting nearly 300 students and staff have been arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS). Now under arrest are five persons, including two Nigeriens, suspected to be arms couriers to the gunmen and a large cache of arms, including 15 AK rifles and 1434 rounds of live ammunition.

Security sources reportedly indicate that one Yusuf Mohammed aka Bature, who is on the list of wanted members of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad aka Boko Haram terror organization and his accomplice, Mubarak Ibrahim were arrested on the Zaria Kaduna highway while on their way to collect a consignment of arms for their commanders.

During a follow-up operation, continued the sources, the arrest of Goni Ibrahim, an international arms courier from Diffa Region, Niger Republic was arrested alongside Ibrahim and one Tukur Sani, who was identified as his accomplice.

The security sources further disclosed that, concealed in an unnamed blue car the arrested men were travelling in were 15 AK 103 rifles, 15 magazines and 1,434 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition.

Days after the arrests, added the security sources, yet another member of the arms courier syndicate, Alhaji Adamu aka Gado Banufe, known to be supplying arms around the Kebbi axis, was equally arrested in Yauri, Kebbi State.

The security sources disclosed that preliminary investigations established that the five men served as arms couriers to the gunmen who carried out the November 2025 attacks on the Catholic boarding school in Papiri.

Dozens of gunmen on motorcycles had in the wee hours of November 21, 2025, stormed the Catholic primary and secondary boarding school, rounding up students and teachers at gunpoint.

While about 50 of the children managed to escape in the chaos that greeted the attack, over 250 others were marched for days into the Kainji Lake Reserve forest.

Slightly over a month after the attack, on December 21, 2025, the federal government and Niger state officials confirmed the rescue and safe return of the remaining 130 captives.