By SCM Staff Writer
Eleven days. For eleven agonizing days, approximately 46 human beings—mostly toddlers, primary pupils, and their teachers—have been left at the mercy of the elements and cold-blooded executioners in the dense forests of Oriire Local Government Area, Oyo State.
On May 15, 2026, the peace of Ogbomoso’s outskirts was shattered when armed gunmen on motorcycles invaded three schools: Community High School (Ahoro-Esinle), Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School, and L.A. Primary School (Esiele).
They didn’t just steal properties; they stole the future of a community. Children as young as two years old were herded like cattle into the bush. Two people were killed on the spot. Since then, a gruesome video has emerged showing the head teacher of the Baptist Primary School pleading with tears for the intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde. To underscore the horror, a dedicated educator, Michael Oyedokun, was reportedly beheaded in captivity.
Yet, despite this unimaginable barbarity, the federal response has been characterized by a familiar, frustrating lethargy. In any functional society, the abduction of dozens of schoolchildren would trigger a total state of emergency—a massive, coordinated mobilization of military power, elite tactical units, and constant aerial surveillance until every child is returned. Instead, what Nigerians get from Abuja is a boilerplate press release “condemning” the attack.
A Record of Rising Ransom: Kidnapping Under the Current Administration
The tragic reality is that the Oriire school abduction is not an isolated anomaly; it is the continuation of a booming criminal enterprise that has metastasized under the current administration. When President Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023, he pledged that security would be his administration’s top priority, promising to “defend the nation from all forms of terror.”
The data tells a drastically different story:
The First-Year Toll: Joint reports from over 80 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) revealed that in President Tinubu’s first year in office alone, 4,334 people were abducted across Nigeria, alongside 4,416 individuals killed in various security breaches.
The School Exploits: The administration has consistently failed to shield classrooms. Just last year, mass abductions gripped the country, including the brazen kidnapping of over 280 pupils and teachers in Kuriga, Kaduna State, alongside similar school raids in Sokoto and Ekiti.
The Total Ledger: Independent tracking indexes indicate that well over 8,000 Nigerians have been seized by bandits and terrorists since mid-2023, with ransoms running into billions of Naira, further impoverishing citizens who are forced to sell everything they own to secure their loved ones’ freedom.
The Myth of “Intensified Operations”
While local security forces, including the overstretched Amotekun Corps, wade through terrain allegedly booby-trapped with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the central government’s response remains largely rhetorical.
The Minister of Defence recently asserted that “Nigeria’s security narrative is gradually changing under purposeful leadership.” Tell that to the parents in Oyo State whose children are sleeping in muddy forests amidst heavy downpours. Tell that to the family of the beheaded teacher.
This docile attitude closely mirrors the tragic indifference of the previous administration. For eight years under Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians watched mass kidnappings move from a North-East crisis to a nationwide plague.
The current leadership is walking the exact same path—treating mass abductions as statistical inconveniences rather than an existential threat to Nigerian statehood.
When bandits realize they can ride into a school at 9:00 AM in a Southwest state, slaughter citizens, film execution videos, and face no overwhelming military retaliation for nearly two weeks, the sovereignty of the nation becomes a farce.
What Must Be Done Immediately
The time for empty condemnations is long past. If the federal government genuinely views these children as the future leaders of Nigeria, the following actions must be taken without delay:
Total Military Mobilization: A total command lock-down of the forests border-linking Oyo, Kwara, and Niger states. Satellite imagery, geo-tracking technologies, and continuous drone surveillance must be deployed to locate the camps.
Unshackle Local Security: The federal government must stop its stubborn resistance to local defense structural integration.
The Amotekun Corps and local hunters understand the topography of the Oriire forests better than any elite troop dispatched from Abuja; they must be fully armed, funded, and integrated into a joint rescue task force.
Accountability in Command: The President must hold security chiefs accountable. If a mass abduction occurs and victims are not recovered within 48 hours, heads should roll within the regional military and police architecture.
The helpless parents of Oriire have been left to weep, pray, and watch horrifying videos of their children’s captors. President Tinubu must wake up to his constitutional primary duty—the security and welfare of the people. If the state cannot protect a two-year-old child inside a school classroom, it has failed fundamentally. Free the Oyo 46 now.
