Oyo rescue opens new vista in fight against kidnappers

Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO 

vikeano@yahoo.co.uk | 08033077519

When on that fateful evening of Friday, June 10, 2026   breaking news of the rescue of all kidnapped school children and teachers in Orire flashed on the television screen, a heartfelt prayer of gratitude to the Almighty instinctively welled up in me. I am sure that was also the very first reaction many other Nigerians in whom there are still a tinge of true humanity. News of their abduction was depressing. There had been cases of school children kidnappings in our country. But that of Orire in Oyo state was different, because among those abducted were toddlers.

They were majorly kids, children that are in the very first phase of earth life known as the sanguine stage.  This starts from birth and ends at onset of the teenage years when the next phase of earth life begins. This next stage which sets in between  14 and 21 is when real life begins for at this time the human being is physically mature and spiritually grounded on earth, hence fully accountable/responsible to God and the larger  society for every of his action (thoughts, words and deeds).  In this phase of life, children evince a carefree, laissez faire characteristic that is ingrained in them by virtue of their sanguine nature. That is to say, they live in the joy of the moment. Thus children should be allowed to be children. They should be allowed to truly experience their childhood years.  They should not mingle with adults or be given adult responsibilities in whatever form.  Anything or circumstance that hinders a child from unfolding his/her true nature as a child would impact him or her in later life.

Then, imagine these kids being forcefully removed from their comfort zones where they experienced only love, care and protection of their parents (especially their mothers) to a new environment; one in which they are exposed to the elements, surrounded by strangers, gun-wielding strangers whose entire demeanour is devoid of love, their captives’ faces dripping of savagery in unapproachable coldness… Their stay in the ‘wilderness’ under difficult conditions extended to days, days elapsed to weeks, became one month, one and half month and still counting. Anytime during this waiting period, I endeavoured to imagine the conditions under which these kids were faring in the cold embrace of their heartless captors it was heart wrenching to me. Yet one could not blot out their suffering and those of their teachers from one’s mind.

The longer they stayed in captivity, the more one feared that something untoward had happened to them.  News had filtered in that the kidnappers killed two of the teachers— one, the very next day after their seizure and the other on the first Sunday of June.   Witnessing these scenes must have been most traumatic for the other teachers.  And then on the 57th day of this ugly incident came the good news that all 39 children and remaining teachers have been rescued, sparking jubilation among Nigerians, especially in Ogbomosho, headquarters of Orire local government.

Large scale abduction of school children first creeped into the nation’s consciousness in 2014. That was when the country was jolted with horrendous kidnapping of students at the Chibok Girls Secondary school in Borno state considered then as epicentre of the terrorist, Boko Haram group. The sheer effrontery and operational scale of the abductors in ferrying hundreds of school girls into the forest with trucks confounded many. It was the first such large scale abduction since advent of the fourth Republic in 1999.

Although some of the girls escaped by themselves or were found by the authorities, some of them are still missing to-date, despite the military’s best efforts in its search and rescue operation. Some 12 years after, all those connected to the girls whether directly or indirectly have resigned themselves to fate and seemingly forgotten the matter though the scars remain.   In same year came the horrific killing of no fewer than 29 teenage boys of Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, Yobe state by bandits/terrorists that invaded and burnt their school as well.

Then, some 30 months into tenure of current administration, there was a surge in bandits/terrorists activities. They spread their fearful tentacles to Kwara state which had hitherto been peaceful and Niger state, both in the north central zone.  The later kidnapping of 25 students of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary, Kebbi state, brought back memories of Chibok school girls’ abduction.  In Niger state abduction of hundreds of pupils of a catholic school in Papyra marked a new level in bandits’ activities, for, it was the first time that these monstrous elements were targeting a private school.  Spates of school kidnappings at this time forced some governments in northern Nigeria to temporarily shut down many schools. While the terrorists ransacked Kwara communities for months, they also invaded Christ Apostolic Church, Eruku in same kwara state, abducting 29 worshippers. This happened at a time when the alleged so called Christian genocide was rearing its head. Their incursion into Kwara state portended danger as it meant that they were inching their way into Western Nigeria since it shares boundary with the west.

And it came to pass with abduction of 39 pupils and five teachers from their school in Orire local government area of Oyo state, western Nigeria. However, their rescue by a combined team of personnel from all security agencies including local vigilantes and hunters in a carefully coordinated operation, all working in synergy towards the one goal, opens a new vista in the nation’s fight against terrorists. Here is a list of personnel that participated in that special operation: troops from operation savannah shield in Kwara state; national counter terrorism unit’s tactical  team (“to do a kind of blocking force from the northern side of the state”); Defence headquarters special forces team comprising personnel from army, navy, air force; police, DSS (department of state security), NIA (Nigeria Intelligence Agency; Nigeria police from the Oyo State command, Air force from both the Oyo state contingent and a specialist tactical operations group from Kainji that brought fighter aircraft; Amoteku(local vigilance, security outfit), local hunters. According to the General Officer Commanding 2 Division of the Nigeria Army, Ibadan, there were casualties among the army, police and hunters in the course of the rescue for which they were encamped in the bush for one month. These sacrificed themselves to save the captives’ lives.

The nation cannot thank enough, all those who participated in the daring operation, including those that worked behind the scenes like the national security adviser, service chiefs, inspector general of police and of course, our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  The largely successful rescue operation demonstrates the capability and commitment of our security agencies. It also opens a new vista in the fight against terrorists. Hierarchy of our security agencies in reviewing this operation should fine tune it to plug whatever loopholes occurred, improve on it and build on the lessons learnt therein, so as to be able to further continue outsmarting terrorists terrorizing citizens across the length and breadth of Nigeria and ultimately to defeat them.