Friday turned out to be one of the most significant days in the 56-day ordeal that gripped Oyo State and captured national attention since May.
Before the day was out, all the abducted pupils and teachers from Oriire Local Government Area had been rescued, and Governor Seyi Makinde had drawn an uncomfortable line connecting the attack to the moment he declared his presidential ambition.
Speaking at a meeting with Bala Mohammed and leaders of the Allied Peoples Movement in Bauchi earlier on Friday, Makinde said something that turned heads.
He noted that Oyo State had gone seven full years under his leadership without witnessing a school abduction of any kind, and then pointed to a striking coincidence in timing.
“I declared to run for the presidency of Nigeria at four o’clock, and by 9 a.m. the following morning, the children were abducted,” he said. He stopped short of drawing a direct accusation, but the implication hanging in that statement was impossible to miss.
The attack he was referencing happened on May 15, when heavily armed men riding motorcycles, dressed in military fatigues, simultaneously stormed Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, Community Grammar School, and L.A. Primary School in Ahoro-Esinele, seizing 44 pupils and teachers, some of the children as young as two years old. A teacher was killed during the assault, and another later died in captivity.
The attackers were eventually linked to Ansaru, a Boko Haram splinter group, whose commanders had demanded their own release from military custody in exchange for the hostages, along with a ₦1 billion ransom.
The 56 days that followed were agonising for the families in Yawota and Ahoro-Esinele. Rescue attempts were complicated by IEDs planted by the abductors and the threat, relayed publicly by Defence Minister Christopher Musa, that the kidnappers would kill the children if security forces moved in.
At least three vigilantes lost their lives during earlier incursions into the forest. The federal government’s silence on the matter during several stretches of the ordeal deepened anxieties.
Then, hours after Makinde spoke in Bauchi, the news arrived. Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga announced on X that all the abducted pupils and teachers had been rescued alive.
Eight members of the kidnapping gang were arrested and taken into DSS custody, while others were killed during the operation. Critically, Onanuga confirmed that no concessions were made; the terrorist kingpin whose release had been demanded remains in custody and is being prosecuted.
The Nigerian Army later released a fuller account of what it described as a month-long intelligence-led operation coordinated by the 2 Division under Major General C.R. Nnebeife, involving the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, DSS, NIA, NCTC, Civil Defence Corps, and local vigilantes including Amotekun units.
The operation reportedly focused on dismantling the abductors’ logistics networks and tracking their hideouts inside the Old Oyo National Park before moving in.
Footage released by the Presidency showed one of the rescued teachers, Community High School principal Rachael Folawe Alamu, thanking President Tinubu and the security agencies, with the children seen eating biscuits behind her.
Governor Makinde described the news as “a big relief for all of us”. He thanked the President, service chiefs, and every agency involved in securing the outcome.
The children are now receiving medical attention and are expected to be reunited with their families under the care of the Oyo State Government. After 56 days, they are coming home. That is, for now, the only thing that truly matters.
