A coordinated wave of terror targeted at classrooms in both the South-West and the North-East has stoked fear among many who are slowly coming to terms with a security crisis that has been left unattended for years.
Two weeks ago, scores of children from Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State and the Mussa District in Borno State were abducted on the same day and tortured, exposing the collapse of security architecture across the nation. It also showed that the South West has become the latest epicentre of an escalated wave of banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and farmer-herder conflicts, fueling concerns that a region once regarded as a safe haven has slowly fallen from grace.
Schoolchildren are the greatest casualty of this shift. Data tracked by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, ACLED, reports 2,416 school children kidnapped across 26 school attacks and 13 states. In Oyo State, children between the ages of two and four have been the victims of heartbreak and torture. To make matters worse, Michael Oyedokun, one of the kidnapped teachers from Oyo, was beheaded online, while government officials have been pressed to negotiate rather than consider a rescue.
Responding to the turn of events, Governor Seyi Makinde painted a grim picture of a “fluid and difficult” situation. Speaking from his private residence in Ibadan, the governor officially confirmed the initial abduction of 32 victims—comprising 18 primary school pupils from 1st Baptist Primary and Nursery School, seven secondary students from Community Secondary School, and seven teachers. However, civil society tracking of the coordinated Oriire attacks later indicated the number of victims could be as high as 46, including a two-year-old child named Christianah Akanbi.
Refusing to surrender to terrorism, Makinde declared a willingness to listen to the demands of the captors if it means saving lives.
“We will do everything to ensure that our children and their teachers are returned safely. These are not foreign people. It is us against ourselves. Whatever it is they demand, we are ready to listen to them and address the ones we can as a state government. The children and their teachers must be released in a timely manner,” Makinde said.
The state government has rapidly established an operational situation room at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters to coordinate the rescue. In a proactive measure against further border incursions, Makinde also confirmed that state-procured surveillance aircraft, recently shipped from China, are currently being reassembled at a Lagos hangar and will be airborne over the Kwara and Republic of Benin borders by the end of June.
Yesterday, President Bola Tinubu deployed 1000 forest guards and a special rescue team to Ogbomosho to tame the increasing incursions of bandits and insurgents into the South West region.
This followed the report of a high-powered Federal Government delegation on Sunday, which visited Esiele and Yawota communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State following the abduction of pupils and teachers from Community Grammar School, Baptist Nursery and Primary School, and L.A. Primary School on May 15, 2026.
BusinessDay gathered that the delegation also met with the wife of the deceased school teacher, Mary Oyedokun and her two children, where the leader of the team, Femi Gbajabiamila, delivered the President’s condolences with an assurance that the family will not suffer.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement on Sunday, said the delegation conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s deep concern over the incident and his commitment to securing the safe return of the victims.
“As part of immediate measures to strengthen security in the area, President Tinubu has approved the recruitment of 1,000 forest guards in Oyo State in collaboration with the state government”
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Recall that the victims have been displayed in trending videos on several social media handles, pleading with the President for intervention and rescue as they face inhuman torture by their abductors
Onanuga said the delegation also informed community leaders and lawmakers that their request for the establishment of a military base in the area would be conveyed to the President for consideration and approval.
In addition, the President directed a specialised security unit with advanced rescue capabilities to intensify efforts to secure the release of the abducted pupils and teachers.
The delegation led by Femi Gbajabiamila, President’s Chief of Staff, and Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, also included the Inspector-General of Police; Tunji Disu; the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa; and the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare.
Addressing residents in both English and Yoruba, Gbajabiamila said the President’s decision to dispatch the nation’s top security leadership to the affected communities reflected his determination to deploy every available resource towards securing the victims’ release.
“Mr President is deeply troubled by this incident. Whatever it takes, our children and teachers will be brought back home safely. He has issued all necessary directives and is providing every support required by our security agencies to achieve that objective.
“Your pain and anxiety are understood. By the grace of God, your children will return safely to your arms.
“Mr President also saw the appeals from some parents and community members urging caution in the rescue efforts. Let me assure you that the operation will be intelligence-led and carefully coordinated, deploying both kinetic and non-kinetic measures to secure the safe return of the victims,” he said.
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But the grief is not confined to the South-West. Nearly a thousand miles away in Maiduguri, the Borno State Children’s Parliament and the Centre for Advocacy, Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI) voiced the anguish of a generation hunted in their own classrooms. In the Askira-Uba Local Government Area, 48 children were forcefully dragged from Mussa Central Primary and Secondary School into the surrounding wilderness.
“We grieve for the hundreds of children who should be in classrooms, in playgrounds, in the safety of their homes, but are not. Children whose names we may never know, whose faces haunt the silence of communities broken by violence and neglect,” the group said.
Sadiq Abubakar, Executive Director of CATAI, noted that these children are not mere statistics; they are lives trapped in a quiet, devastating captivity. Speaking alongside Fatima Chiroma Zana and Ibrahim Umar, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Borno State Children’s Parliament, Abubakar, charged security agencies to immediately launch a full-scale, sustained operation.
For the dozens of children and educators currently trapped in the forests of Oyo and Borno, time is a luxury they do not have. The nation now watches with bated breath, demanding that the duty bearers turn their promises into action and bring the children home.
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