Oyo Abduction: A National Tragedy  Not A Political Weapon

By Oludare Ogunlana

The abduction of teachers and schoolchildren in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State is a national tragedy, not a political weapon. I condemn in the strongest terms the reckless claim by former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, that the Oyo State Government orchestrated this kidnapping to blackmail President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I do not speak on this matter from a distance. I am a son of Oyo State, born on its soil, and I am a father. When armed men dragged children and their teachers into the forest, they wounded my own people and my own home. Every parent in Oriire who cannot sleep, I understand their fear in my bones. This is personal to me in a way it will never be to Mr Fayose.

On 15 May 2026, armed assailants stormed schools in the Ogbomoso area and seized dozens of children and their teachers. Weeks later, the victims remain in captivity. A teacher has reportedly been killed. Distressed principals and mothers have begged the nation for help in harrowing videos. While families grieve and pray, Mr Fayose chose a national television platform to suggest, by his own admission, that he might be wrong, that the abduction “might be orchestrated.”

This is not analysis. It is provocation. To imply that a sitting government would stage the abduction of its own children for political advantage, while offering no proof, insults every parent waiting at the edge of the forest for news of a son or daughter. It cheapens the dead. It endangers the living because it drags national attention away from the rescue effort and into a partisan quarrel.

Here lies the heart of the matter. Men like Mr Fayose have nothing at stake in Oriire. No child of theirs sleeps in that forest. No relative of theirs teaches in those classrooms. In my opinion, their interest in this tragedy is neither grief nor justice. It is an opportunity, a platform to harvest political capital and personal relevance from the tears of families who have lost everything. They risk nothing, and they would gain from the nation’s pain. That is the difference between those who carry the wound and those who exploit it.

Mr Fayose is entitled to his politics. He is not entitled to trade in the trauma of children for relevance. The rivalry between him and Governor Seyi Makinde is well known to Nigerians. Nevertheless, that personal feud must never be fought across the bodies of abducted pupils.

I therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call Mr Fayose to order. The President has rightly described this atrocity as barbaric and has directed a technology-driven rescue operation. That national resolve must not be undermined by inflammatory voices seeking to convert a security emergency into a campaign talking point. A firm word from the Presidency, and from responsible leaders across the political divide, will signal that the rescue of these children stands above every political interest.

I also remind the public that those who lecture the nation owe it the highest standard of restraint. Mr Fayose spent the better part of a decade answering corruption allegations before the courts, including an eleven count money laundering and fraud matter valued at N6.9 billion, on which he secured a discharge in July 2025 that the EFCC has indicated it will appeal. A man whose own conduct occupied the justice system for seven years should be the last to fling unproven allegations of criminality at others.

Let my message be clear. The children of Oriire are not pawns. The teachers of Oyo are not bargaining chips. As a father, as a son of this state, and as a security professional, I stand with the victims, their families, and every operative working to bring them home. I urge all public figures to choose the dignity of silence over the noise of opportunism until our children are free.