A witness for the Department of State Services has told the Federal High Court in Abuja how students and teachers abducted from schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State were held for 56 days in conditions she described as dehumanising.
The witness, identified only as “AAA” to protect her identity, testified on Thursday, 17 September 2026, before Justice Salim Olasupo Ibrahim. She appeared as the first prosecution witness in the trial of five men accused of belonging to the Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, known as Ansaru, a proscribed terrorist group.
She was led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN. According to her account, armed men stormed the schools on about 12 motorcycles on 15 May 2026, firing shots to stop pupils and teachers from escaping.
The witness said the captives, some as young as one and a half years from pre-nursery classes, were moved through six different camps. She told the court they were forced to walk barefoot, slept on grass and were exposed to heavy rain and sun before security forces rescued them.
She testified that the kidnappers’ leader told the captives they were being held to press the government to release detained Ansaru members, and not for ransom. Their phones were seized, she said, and used to contact relatives and officials to relay the group’s demands.
The witness gave a detailed account of the conditions in the bush. She said the victims faced acute shortages of food and water, with about four people sharing a single cup during rationing, and that they had to drink dirty water to survive.
According to her, the captives were initially fed rice with salt and palm oil, then rice and palm oil, and eventually plain white rice once supplies ran out. She said the youngest children were flogged to stop them struggling for food, which was served in a dirty bucket.
She further told the court that two teachers, Deacon John Olaleye and Michael Oyedokun, were taken away on separate occasions and beheaded, with the kidnappers claiming the government was not serious about meeting their demands.
The evidence forms part of a seven-count charge brought under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. The defendants are Mahmud Muhammad, Abubakar Abbas, Abdulrazak Umar, Yunusa Musa and Shamsu Adamu Sani, each listed with several aliases.
The counts include committing acts of terrorism, causing the deaths of the two teachers by decapitation, conspiracy to kidnap, aiding the abduction, and failing to disclose information about an imminent attack. The defendants are presumed innocent unless the prosecution proves the charges.
The witness said security forces rescued the captives at the sixth camp after a gun battle with the kidnappers. Defence counsel Bala Dakum was scheduled to cross-examine her on 18 September, and Justice Ibrahim ordered that the defendants remain in DSS custody for the duration of the trial.
The testimony revives one of the most closely followed abduction cases of 2026. The attack on 15 May targeted three schools in the Ahoro-Esinele and Yawota communities near Ogbomoso: Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Community High School and L.A. Primary School.
Accounts of the number taken vary across official records. The charge sheet and the Nigerian Army put the figure at 46, made up of 39 students and seven teachers, while the DSS witness and several court records refer to 49 abductees. The difference appears to reflect whether very young children and others present are counted separately.
The Presidency announced the rescue on 10 July 2026, saying all surviving captives had been freed after a search operation coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser, the DSS and the military. President Bola Tinubu said eight suspects were arrested and others neutralised during the operation.
The Oyo State Government, in a statement by its Commissioner for Information, Dotun Oyelade, said it had refused to pay ransom, describing that stance as a long-term approach to tackling kidnapping. Governor Seyi Makinde had earlier argued that sustained military pressure in the North West was pushing armed groups southward.
The Army confirmed that one teacher, Adegboye Adesiyan, was killed during the attack itself, while Oyedokun was killed in captivity, reducing the number finally released to 44.
The case sits within a wider pattern of mass school abductions in Nigeria that began with the Chibok kidnapping of 2014 and has continued across several states. The current trial is one of the few to reach open court, and its outcome will test the application of the 2022 anti-terrorism law.