At least 45 kids were reported abducted during the attack on three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State on Friday.
The schools assaulted were Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, Community Grammar School, Esiele and L.A. Elementary School.
Sunday PUNCH learnt that the event was said to have increased tension in the state.
Security services were also alleged to have cordoned off possible escape routes of the gunmen after they escaped into a neighboring forest reserve abutting Oriire villages and the Old Oyo National Park axis.
Elizabeth Olagoke, a teacher at Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, told one of our correspondents that the kidnappers spoke Yoruba, Hausa and Pidgin English.
She reported the terrorists arrived about 8am. We’d all started the morning session. They came on six motorbikes, two on each.
I heard them exclaim, “E ya wolé” (come in). There was pandemonium and they started shooting randomly. The terrorists spoke Yoruba, Hausa and Pidgin English.
They were all masked and camouflaged and they were young men. They were from the Esinele district. They functioned for almost seven minutes.
“They came into my classroom first and they took me and a two year old girl that I had on my back. I asked them to let me leave, and one of them replied they should.
I began to run and some of them even ran after me. I had 20 children in my kindergarten class. The schoolchildren come from the communities of Yawota, Esinele and Alausa. The schoolchildren seized are: Yawota, 8 years old; Esinele, 20; and Alausa, 5. They also abducted a teacher. They abducted around 48 persons in all.
“The terrorists took my husband’s motorbike which he had parked at my school. They also gunned down a motorcyclist and took his bike. Yawota had three motorcycles stolen. They whisked the schoolchildren out on motorcycles. It was a frightening situation. I haven’t yet recovered from the shock.”
The traditional ruler of the community, the Eleshi Ele of Esiele, Oba Tajudeen Abioye, reported 45 pupils were kidnapped.
Oba Abioye said attempts were ongoing to rescue them.
Former congressman for Oriire Constituency, Bamigboye Abidoye, stated 36 students were taken from Baptist Nursery and Primary School alone.
He claimed that about five instructors were also kidnapped from the secondary school.
Three individuals have been arrested in connection with the event, it was learnt.
The suspects were arrested in Esiele on Friday and taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department, a top security operator who spoke on the investigation said.
“The schoolchildren and the principal will be rescued unhurt and the investigation is going on. The public should be assured,” he added.
Mothers protest abductions
At least seven parents whose children were taken in the attack have been interviewed by our correspondent.
One of them, Ajarah Ayanwale, said the terrorists convinced the villagers that they were security officers there to defend the towns.
Her seven year old son, who was in Primary 1, was snatched but her four year old child managed to escape, she said.
In the morning we spotted the kidnappers in military uniform. We felt they were here in the neighborhood to protect us. “Some of us were even saying, ‘Thank God, now we have security presence in our community,’” she recalled, choking back tears.
Moments thereafter, pandemonium followed with gunshots across the communities, Ayanwale said.
‘A few minutes later we began to hear gunshots. We started rushing around in circles, and we were worried about the safety of our children,” she said.
The attackers kidnapped children from Yawota, Esiele, Alausa and adjoining Ohunya village, Ayanwale said.
“We came home to have our children, and that’s when we found out that they had been kidnapped. They said they took away our children in a car and on motorcycles. She appealed to the administration “Please save our children for us”.
Another mother, Shukurat Pius, stated her son Stephen, 5, was among the kidnapped pupils.
She said people first saw unusual movements of motorbikes, then gunshots rang out surrounding the school.
“Some of the school kids got out through the windows but the small ones who couldn’t run were caught,” she claimed.
She said some youngsters were put onto motorcycles by the shooters, while others were marched into the jungle on foot.
They were put on motorbikes, and the remainder of the youngsters were marched on foot to the forest. I want my child alive. “The government needs to help bring back our children,” she said.
Nafisat Agunle said the pain has been excruciating ever since her eight-year-old son in Primary 2 disappeared during the attack.
“We were at home when we started hearing gunshots from about 8am to 9am. “We heard later that gunmen had attacked the primary school,” she claimed.
Agunle said she hurried to school and then came home frantic looking for her child but couldn’t find him anywhere.
I’ve been looking for him since. I couldn’t sleep, eat or bathe. It is the first time such an incident has transpired in the neighborhood. “Our hearts are heavy,” she mourned.
Another mother, Adijat Ibrahim, said she still believed her nine-year-old son, Muhammed Ibrahim, abducted, would walk back into the house.
Her kid, who she said normally arrived early for school, left home about 7am on Friday.
“He loves to be on time,” she said.
The town was gripped by terror as heavy gunshots were heard in the area, she said.
When everything died down I went to the school to get my son but couldn’t find him. The school was empty and the mood was tense,” she said.
The distraught mother said, “I keep feeling like my son will stroll into the house while fighting back tears. I love my boy. “Please help save the schoolchildren.”
At Esiele neighborhood, Serah Oguntunde said she watched helplessly as the terrorists took away school children, including her 13-year-old daughter, Hanah Ojo a JSS 1 pupil of neighborhood Grammar School.
Oguntunde said she and others were on their way to the farm when they suddenly heard gunfire and ran back.
We spotted individuals with guns in a car with several school children at Alausa around two minutes later. “They were coming from Esiele,” she said.
The vehicle was driven by the school principal who was also kidnapped, Oguntunde claimed.
“The kids in the car were about eight years old, not counting the terrorists. “The car was later burned,” she stated.
“My daughter was not found in the school when we went to check,” the mom said. I pray, Please don’t hurt my kid. “That’s terrible.
The attack was much more terrible as two of Selimat Abadi’s children were stolen at the same time.
One of them is eight and his name is Tosin and the other one is five.
They both left for school at 7am. “They take their education very seriously,” she remarked.
“When the shooting stopped,” Abadi remembered, “a lot of parents came to the school looking for their children in a panic.
“About 20 parents were at the school and none of us went home with our children. This is creepy. “We want our children back alive,” she stated.
Gabriel Sunday, a resident, said only one of his three children returned home after the attack.
His children, six-year-old Jacob and four-year-old Mary, were abducted and another youngster escaped through the jungle.
“I was on my farm when there was shooting. “I had to come back out in the community to find out what was going on,” he said.
By the time he arrived, he said, panic had already swept through the villages.
“My son who returned home said he ran into the bush after the terrorists kidnapped his classmates,” he said.
The perpetrators fled into the woodland reserve, Sunday said.
I pray not to lose any of my children. “I want them alive back,” he said.
Gani Adams, Terrorists are now targeting the Southwest
Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and National Coordinator, Oodua People’s Congress, has raised the alarm that robbers and terrorists have penetrated South-West states, expressing fears over security challenges in the region.
In a chat with our correspondent, Adams warned that the recent attacks in areas such as Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo were simply the beginning.
The OPC head added that the rising instability across the region could only be countered by forming state police and strengthening collaboration between governors and local security organizations that know the territory.
He noted that local security groups like the OPC have not been able to properly tackle kidnappers and armed criminals as they have not been given government authority to fully operate and carry weaponry.
“We cannot do anything without the state police or government’s approval for the operationalisation of local security outfits. We have been deeply penetrated, so the government can’t do anything about kidnapping and instability in the SouthWest. Without the presence of state police or allowing the required security groups to collaborate with governors at the local government level to function, the issue of insecurity will persist.”
The governors have continued to refuse to collaborate and work with local security outfits, which has continued to exacerbate instability in the region. “OPC and other local security groups are not allowed to carry arms or operate without official approval, we will be in trouble if we do that. And we have been appealing to the governments of the SouthWest states to give us the go ahead to operate, but nothing has happened.
“We’re working on getting the government involved right now, we can’t just walk in. “I have learnt my lessons from past experience, we have had serious trouble with the government for getting involved in security without government approval,” the OPC leader stated.
“There has been a heavy infiltration of criminal elements into the South-West states. If urgent action is not taken, the situation will continue to deteriorate,” he said.
Adams also cautioned that the latest bombings and abductions in nations across the region were merely the opening moves by terrorist groups to test security reactions.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before. Now, the terrorists are only testing the waters as they invade Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and now Oyo States. They are going to do what appears to be little attacks. They do not want to display their strength because if they do, you will know how many there are and may wish to smash them with your forces.
Now the modus operandi is to sneak into our regions, attack, abduct and sneak out. “And the only way to fight them is to work with local security groups who know the ground and their routes,” he continued.
“The insecurity that has ravaged parts of Northern Nigeria for years is gradually creeping into the South-West,” the OPC leader lamented.
Security operatives cut off escape routes
The Oyo State administration said suspected kidnappers engaged in Friday attack had been contained within the National Park axis.
“Security operatives have cordoned off the area and restricted the movement of the suspects,” the state Commissioner for Information, Dotun Oyelade, stated.
Oyelade said the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Agro Rangers and Nigeria Police Force with personnel from Monitoring Unit were mobilised to initiate rescue operations.
He said the Commissioner of Police, Ayodeji Abimbola, was coordinating the rescue operation with his counterpart in Kwara State and both commands had agreed to beef up surveillance and ensure that any suspect attempting to cross state boundaries would be arrested.
Oyelade said the patrol operations began on Saturday after intelligence reports showed that the suspects were still within the National Park in Oyo State.
Three different patrol teams of Amotekun operatives and hunters from seven local government areas in Oke-Ogun were dispatched through Igbeti to Oloka and nearby settlements, he said.
There had been no direct contact with the abductors so far and police were working to verify the actual number of youngsters impacted as school authorities had not yet furnished accurate records of missing children, the statement stated.
“This has complicated the rescue operation. “We are trying to find their position now and put pressure on them,” he said.
He also underlined the state’s resolve to secure the release of all abducted victims and restore normalcy to the afflicted towns.
Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti strengthen security
The development has caused anxiety across the region as the governments of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos States have started to beef up surveillance operations, deploy tactical teams and step up collaboration with local security outfits and community leaders to prevent a repeat of the attack and reassure residents of their safety.
Security authorities in Ondo State said preemptive measures had been implemented to forestall a recurrence of such incident.
The Commander of Amotekun Corps in Ondo State, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, said border patrols had been increased while schools, forests and vulnerable areas are under continual monitoring.
We have increased patrols in the border communities. Adeleye stated, “We have made the patrol a 24-hour operation now.”
He said plain-clothes officers were also deployed to strategic areas around the state while Amotekun Rangers were trying to defend forests against criminal infiltration.
However, Ondo State Police command said tactical units, anti-kidnapping squads, intelligence operatives and mobile police officers have been deployed to flashpoints, roads and border villages.
In an interview with our correspondent, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abayomi Jimoh, said the command had strengthened engagement with local vigilantes, hunters and community leaders to better information gathering and speedy response.
“The abduction is disturbing and unfortunate. The state government had immediately activated preventive measures,” Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Samuel Ojo, said.
“We are working to ensure that this will not happen here in our state,” Ojo added.
He said security officials in the state had been asked to step up surveillance around borderline villages and tighten monitoring of the border to avoid infiltration by criminals.
Ojo indicated that security talks were already underway at the state level to increase proactive policing and coordination among security organizations.
In reaction, the Ogun State administration claimed it had continued to boost forest operations and anti-kidnapping patrols across the state.
Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, claimed security operatives recently engaged suspected kidnappers inside one of the state’s forests, killing some of them while some suspects were arrested during the operation.
“We are very proactive in Ogun State, we have put in place several security measures to ensure that our people can sleep with their two eyes closed,” Akinmade stated.
Security agencies, he said, were now going through forests across the state to prevent kidnapping and terrorism from taking root in Ogun communities.
The Ekiti State government, for its part, said it has deployed security operatives to secure schools and other public areas as preventive steps to ensure the security of lives and property.
The state Commissioner for Information, Taiwo Olatunbosun, who disclosed this to Sunday PUNCH, said the declaration of emergency approach to the issue of security by the Governor Biodun Oyebanji has insured lives and property safety.
“We are not resting on our oars, we are sensitising the people on the need to be vigilant. Security is everybody’s business and the security services need to be fed with information about unfamiliar faces and suspicious movements in their neighborhoods.
“In Ekiti, we have a Safe School Project programme, in which almost all the schools in the state are well-fenced and we have technology, such that we get real-time information relating to the activities of the schools and immediate communities at all times.
“We have secured our border towns to a point where we are confident we are safe. “The governor is having security meetings not just with security agencies but with traditional rulers because they are also collaborating with the security agencies, to ensure that intelligence reports are shared,” he said.
Lagos State Governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Gboyega Akosile, said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has continued to assure people of their safety, emphasizing that appropriate security structures have been put in place to prevent any breach.
“The governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has continually said the people of Lagos State are fully secured. Lagos state has given the architecture that would make sure that there will not be any security breach”.
The governor has frequent security meetings and briefings from relevant authorities. Akosile said swift action is always taken to preempt attacks.
Sanwo-Olu, he said, had always underlined that protection of lives and property remained his priority and assured Lagosians that there was no cause for alarm.
‘Lagosians have no cause to fear. “Lagos is secured,” he stated, asking citizens to be watchful and report suspicious activities.
“But the governor has also continued to remind the people that if you see something, say something. If you see any strange movement around you, don’t expect the government alone since security is everybody’s business”.
Also speaking, Director General of DAWN Commission, Seye Oyeleye, said: “We have reached out to the appropriate quarters based on what transpired yesterday. Things are happening underneath, both to attempt and save these children, but also to make sure that things like this don’t happen again.
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