Bandits will seize Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in July or August – Primate Ayodele warns

Primate Elijah Ayodele, leader of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, has issued a stark warning that bandits will block the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway sometime in July or August, urging security agencies to take immediate preventive action.

One of Nigeria’s most vocal prophetic voices has sounded a fresh alarm — and this time, it concerns the country’s most strategically critical highway.

Primate Elijah Ayodele, leader of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, warned his congregation on Sunday that bandits are planning to block the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway within the next two months, calling on security agencies to take the threat seriously before it materialises.

The cleric was characteristically direct, if imprecise on timing.

“Lagos-Ibadan expressway, I don’t know the exact time, but it’s either July or August. Bandits will block the road. Lagos-Ibadan expressway. They will block the road. So the security agencies need to take this into account,” Ayodele said.

The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is no ordinary road. It is one of Nigeria’s most heavily trafficked arteries, connecting Lagos — Africa’s largest city — to the South-West and serving as a critical corridor to the country’s northern regions. A successful bandit blockade on that route would not just inconvenience commuters; it would signal a dramatic and deeply unsettling southward expansion of insecurity that has already devastated communities across the northwest and north-central zones.

Daily Post reported that Ayodele has been increasingly outspoken about Nigeria’s deteriorating security landscape. He recently criticised the Federal Government directly, accusing it of failing its most basic constitutional obligation — keeping citizens safe.

The prophecy arrives at a moment of genuine national anxiety. Banditry, once largely associated with Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina states, has been steadily creeping toward the Middle Belt and beyond. The prospect of armed groups operating boldly enough to blockade a major southwest highway — even briefly — would represent a significant escalation.

Whether one views Primate Ayodele as a prophetic voice or a commentator in clerical robes, the underlying message is hard to dismiss: Nigeria’s security agencies need to be watching the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway very carefully between now and the end of August.

The road connects millions. Losing it — even temporarily — is a risk nobody can afford to ignore.