‘Sacrifice Me If Necessary’ — Makinde on Rescue of Abducted Oyo Pupils
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has declared his readiness to make any sacrifice, including risking his own life, to secure the release of pupils and teachers held by gunmen in Oriire Local Council of the state. He made the pledge on Tuesday while addressing peaceful protesters led by activist Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, at his Ikolaba residence in Ibadan.
“We will do everything humanly possible to bring our children back. I am not someone who leads from the back,” Makinde said. “But, if we get to a point where certain people have to be sacrificed, including myself, we will do it.” The governor said no additional casualty had been recorded among the abductees after the earlier killing of a Mathematics teacher in captivity, though he declined to disclose operational details for security reasons.
The crisis dates to May 15, 2026, when armed men stormed three schools in the Ahoro-Esinele and Yawota communities of Oriire and seized 39 pupils and seven teachers. During the attack, gunmen killed an assistant headmaster and a motorcyclist. Intelligence reports indicated the victims were being held within the old Oyo National Park area, a vast and difficult terrain spanning approximately 2,500 square kilometres across parts of 10 local government areas. The prolonged captivity has triggered an indefinite strike by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Oyo wing, and nationwide protests by students and principals.
The protests gained fresh urgency following the swift resolution of a separate abduction. Mrs Olaide Adegoke John-Paul, younger sister of former Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu, and her 12-year-old twin sons were seized on June 3 while she drove the children to school. Police rescued them three days later in an intelligence-led operation during which two members of the kidnapping syndicate were shot dead.
That contrast drew a response from the Oodua People’s Congress, which distanced itself from suspects arrested over the Adelabu kidnapping. In a statement by its President, Wasiu Afolabi, also known as Askari, the group commended the police but pressed for similar urgency on the Oriire victims. “The speed with which the Adelabu family case was resolved showed there was no hiding place for criminals,” Afolabi said, adding that any arrested suspect claiming OPC membership “was an impersonator and should be made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Makinde pointed to the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, as central to his administration’s local security architecture. Amotekun was established in January 2020 by the six South-West states to complement conventional forces amid rising banditry and kidnapping.
The Oriire attack reflects a wider pattern of mass school abductions that has plagued Nigeria since the 2014 Chibok seizure of 276 schoolgirls and the 2021 wave of kidnappings across the North-West. The spread of such attacks into the South-West marks a worrying expansion. The federal government’s Safe Schools Initiative, first launched in 2014 and recently revived, remains the main policy response, though implementation has been uneven across states.
Separately, the Ondo State Government inaugurated a 17-man steering committee for the Safe Schools Programme, chaired by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, drawing the Army, Police, NSCDC, Amotekun, traditional rulers and the PTA into a multi-agency response.