By Juliet Oladele, Reporting
A rescue operation to free 46 abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area has ended in disaster, with an unknown number of soldiers, Amotekun corps members and local vigilante hunters killed after stepping onto explosives planted by kidnappers.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has extended his condolences to the families of the fallen security operatives, confirming that the rescue mission – launched following the 15th May attack on three schools – suffered a deadly setback when the abductors’ improvised explosive devices were triggered along a bush path.
Dr Suleiman Olanrewaju, the Governor’s Special Adviser on Media, disclosed the fresh tragedy on Monday while addressing newsmen in Ibadan.
He declined to give an exact death toll, saying only that “some personnel” had been killed. Injured operatives are currently receiving treatment in hospitals.
“The security operatives were killed during efforts to rescue the kidnapped teachers and pupils when they stepped onto explosives planted by the abductors,” Olanrewaju said.
The confirmation comes barely 24 hours after the kidnappers released a video showing the beheading of Mr Michael Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher at Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele.
Government confirms murder of teacher
Olanrewaju said the governor had personally condoled with the family of Oyedokun, who was among seven teachers dragged out of their classrooms in the early hours of Friday, 15th May.
“What we know right now is that seven teachers in all were abducted,” Olanrewaju said. “And, unfortunately, we got a video this morning that one of the teachers, I understand, the mathematics teacher, was killed by the terrorists.”
The abductors also seized 39 pupils – some as young as two years old – from Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School and Community High School Ahoro-Esinele. The total number of captives remains 45, with one confirmed dead.
Six suspects arrested, three ‘individuals of interest’ held
Olanrewaju offered a rare note of progress, revealing that security agencies had made several arrests in connection with the abduction.
“Well, from the information available from the Commissioner of Police, about six individuals have been arrested within the locality,” he said. “Some of them, we believe, are perhaps informants or people running logistics for the terrorists.
“Also, three individuals of interest have been arrested by another security outfit within the state.”
Governor Makinde has assured that the state government will deploy both kinetic and non-kinetic measures to rescue those still in captivity.
Rescue mission trapped in deadly terrain
The use of explosives suggests a level of tactical preparation rarely seen in school abductions in the South-West. Security sources, speaking anonymously, told Stonix News that the kidnappers appear to have fortified their hideout within a forested area – possibly near a national park corridor – making a ground assault highly dangerous.
Local hunters who survived the blast described the explosives as “military grade”.
“We were following a trail of motorcycle tyres,” one survivor said from a hospital bed. “Then the earth opened. Men I have hunted with for twenty years were gone.”
The Amotekun Corps and the Nigerian Army have yet to issue official statements on the number of their personnel killed.
‘We are running out of options’
For parents of the missing children, Monday’s news has deepened an already unbearable wait.
“They sent soldiers, and now soldiers are dead,” said a father whose eight-year-old son is among the captives. “What are we supposed to do? Pray? We have been praying. Fasting? We have no food anyway.”
The Nigeria Union of Teachers, Oyo State Wing, had earlier declared three days of fasting and prayers. That period ends today.
But with explosives now in the hands of the abductors, and rescuers themselves becoming casualties, the question on every lip in Oriire is no longer when the children will come home – but if any rescue force can reach them at all.
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