Itasin Imobi: Ogun Community where roaming elephants kill residents

Itasin Imobi: Ogun Community where roaming elephants kill residents

On Monday, July 28, 2025, tragedy struck in Itasin Imobi, a quiet fishing and agrarian community in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State. A 50-year-old farmer was mauled to death by elephants that had reportedly strayed from their natural habitat, rekindling fear and drawing attention to the villagers’ long-standing ordeal with rampaging wildlife. When BANKOLE TAIWO visited the village after the incident, he met a grieving community grappling not only with the loss of a loved one but also with a grim history of survival, unanswered cries for help, and a desperate call for urgent intervention, before the elephants claim yet another life

Itasin Imobi, a fishing and agrarian community in Ogun State’s Ijebu East Local Government Area, is nestled within a lush forest. The journey from Abeokuta, the state capital, should take less than three hours, but large stretches of the J3 Junction–Ijebu Ode–Benin Expressway are in dire need of repair.

Like many rural communities, the village struggles with poor infrastructure: no portable water, no electricity, and costly access to education. Parents sending their children to Imobi Community High School in Oke Igbaga spend up to N2,500 daily on transportation.

However, none of these developmental hurdles cause the rural dwellers more sleepless nights than the threat of rampaging elephants. A herd, they said, migrated to the village about seven years ago, becoming an albatross that has left a trail of blood and tears, devastating livelihoods and even claiming lives.

When the elephants arrived

According to residents, the elephants first appeared in June 2018, roaming majestically through the village to forage for food before intuitively retreating into the forest.

For nearly a year, the herd, now estimated to number up to 100, were “good neighbors,” and a source of fascination and wonder. Neighbouring villagers even trooped to Itasin for rare glimpses of the giant, majestic creatures, which were initially harmless.

However, these once-friendly animals soon turned violent. They began to destroy farm crops, primarily cassava, leaving farmers in tears and deep debt. They also started attacking individuals trying to earn a living in the forest. Villagers allege that despite consistently reporting the animals’ destructive activities to the government through forest guards, “nothing significant has been done beyond empty promises.”

A trail of blood and tears

During a visit to the community on Wednesday, villagers recounted scary stories. Between 2023 and 2024, the elephants launched two separate attacks, leaving their victims for dead.

The victims, identified as Kunle Bello, alias “Eco,” and Kazeem Badmus, a chainsaw operator, were trampled and gored by the elephants’ tusks. It took the courageous intervention of the community’s youth to storm the forest and bring back the almost lifeless bodies of these two residents for medical treatment. The victims, who suffered grievous injuries during the unprovoked attacks, were said to have survived by a whisker.

Villagers stated they have had to live reluctantly with the elephants’ excesses and destructive tendencies because government officials have always warned that it is unlawful to kill them due to their endangered status.

50-year-old farmer killed

On Monday, July 28, a fresh tragedy struck. The elephants cornered 50-year-old farmer Yaya Musa, alias Kalamu, on his farm and mauled him to death. When our correspondent visited on Wednesday, the air was thick with sorrow. The widow of the slain farmer, Mrs. Tayelolu Musa, was beside herself with grief. The 40-year-old, too distraught to speak, wondered how she would raise their five children alone now that elephants had killed her husband.

“Governor Dapo Abiodun, the government should please help me,” the widow cried.

A community elder, Rasheed Adekunle, described the farmer’s killing by the elephants as horrific.

Narrating the tragedy, Adekunle said, “It was one of his children who went into the farm with him that ran back into the village to raise alarm that his father had been attacked by these animals. By the time residents got back to the farm to rescue him, the animals had already used their tusks to rip open the man’s stomach with a large part of his intestine outside… He was indeed massacred by the elephants. Though we tried to save his life, he died about five minutes after he was brought into the village.”

Adekunle said the incident sent panic through the village and reawakened the villagers’ fear. He recalled that the elephants had not always been violent.

“What they normally did was to come into the village to eat bananas, pawpaw, sugarcane, among others, after which they would go back into the forest,” he explained. “However, about a year after we first sighted them, they started eating cassava planted by the people, but there was no serious incident until about two years ago when they attacked a resident, Kunle Bakare, fondly called Eco, and almost killed him.”

He described the latest incident as unexpected, adding that since Musa was mauled to death, “we have all remained inconsolable.”

Adekunle said the community had sought government’s intervention in the past but their cries were allegedly ignored.

“Unfortunately, all our past efforts to call government attention to the destructive activities of these animals have yielded nothing. We sincerely pray that the government will be decisive this time around and not allow a reoccurrence of this tragic incident. They should please come and take the animals to somewhere else or find a way to cage them to curtail their freedom,” he pleaded.

A community in fear

In a conversation with Sunday PUNCH, the Chief Imam of the community, Alfa Shina Arimi, echoed the deep-seated anger and frustration over the anguish caused by these “enfant terrible” animals.

“Our community has never had to cope with elephants until seven years ago when they migrated to our area through Araromi from the J4 reserve forest,” he stated. “It is now impossible for people to go look for their daily bread because of the fear of being attacked by these animals. Even our women can’t engage in palm oil production again. These animals also attack our people when they go to the river for fishing; it is terrible. And when you see how they tore our brother that was killed, you will understand our anger and pain. The government should just come and pack the animals away from our community. Hunger is looming already because the people are now getting fearful to go to farms.”

A 52-year-old female farmer, Iyabo Ajayi, recounted losing nearly N1m twice due to elephants destroying her expansive cassava plantation.

Ajayi, who is also a fisherwoman, spoke about how the animals sometimes chase them away during fishing expeditions, destroying their equipment. She appealed for urgent government intervention.

Similarly, Adetoun Bello reported the destruction of her N800,000 worth of cassava plantation and those of many other villagers.

“What is certain is that hunger and increased poverty loom in the village because these animals have virtually taken over our means of livelihoods; nobody is safe either,” Bello said. “We just beg the government to please come to our rescue. We never touched these animals as we had been warned, but they have continued to inflict us with unbearable pain. The time is now for the government to show that they care for us more than the animals.”

Kazeem Badmus, the chainsaw operator who survived a brutal attack by four elephants last May, recalled that he was cutting trees in the forest when the animals appeared and attacked him. He explained that he had to undergo surgical procedures to survive the attack and was at home recuperating for almost a year until about two months ago when he got back to work.

“The truth is that these animals are now a threat to everyone across villages, and the earlier the government approaches this problem with all the seriousness that it deserves, the better for all,” Badmus stressed. “After all, the government won’t say that the welfare of the animals is much more paramount than that of the human beings.”

The Olisa of Itasin, Chief Adewale Obilana, the second-in-command to the community’s traditional ruler, condemned the elephants’ devastating activities and the government’s perceived helplessness. However, he also suggested that “few residents of the community may also not be totally blameless.”

Chief Obilana alleged that some residents collect money from groups of about 40 people who engage in wood logging with chainsaw machines in the forest.

“If it is just to cut these trees and transport them out, there may not have been much problem,” he explained, “but these loggers will stay inside the forest to cut the woods into planks using their machines, and the long use of these machines with their attendant noise piercing into the forest is quite irritable to these animals; this tends to force them out more often than not.”

Chief Obilana also disagreed with residents’ claims that elephants had never been in the community until 2018, stating that they were present in the past but disappeared in 1942, only to reappear in 2018. He urged the government to take decisive action against the loggers responsible for producing planks within the forest, as the prolonged use and noise of chainsaw machines are a major reason for the animals’ restlessness. Additionally, Chief Obilana called for the government to compensate residents for their invaluable losses.

Government weighs solutions

The Commissioner for Forestry, Taiwo Oludotun, expressed sadness over the farmer’s death, calling it an incident the government was “never happy about.”

When asked about allegations of negligence, Oludotun stated, “I don’t want us to drag this issue back and forth. A life has been lost, which is very painful. We need to respect the dead and proffer solutions to avoid future occurrences. Presently, they are in a mourning mood. Justifying any issue means we are not sensitive to their plight. We will meet with the community very soon and see what we can do as a government.”

The Project Coordinator for Erin Wildlife Conservation Trust, Mr. Simi Shonibare, emphasised that while the incident highlights elephant safety concerns, it must be balanced with the safety of Itasin community residents.

As a way forward, Shonibare proposed that Itasin Forest be officially gazetted as a Wildlife Sanctuary, as the elephants have made it their home. He urged the state government, in collaboration with stakeholders, to develop a Forest Management Plan addressing pressures from deforestation, agricultural expansion, and human encroachment.

He explained: “In practice, the strategies will include ecological zoning and land use management by mapping elephant corridors through community knowledge and camera traps. This gives us data to monitor their movements and create buffer zones and no-farm zones. We can also construct chilli fences and beehive fences to protect vulnerable farms, as elephants are frightened of bees and chilies cause irritation. Lastly, community engagement will be critical to sensitise them further and provide them with alternative livelihoods to logging, such as beekeeping/honey, sustainable forestry (medicinal plants, bamboo, among others), fish ponds, etc. Once we have a stable forest that allows the elephants and humans to coexist, we can then introduce ecotourism to promote and sustain the ecosystem.”