By Juliet Oladele, Reporting
THE motorcycles appeared first. Four of them, kicking up red dust on the Friday morning roads of Oriire Local Government, near Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Villagers in Yawota later counted three motorcycles snatched at machete-point. Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele, lost a fourth.
Then the guns arrived at the school gates.
By the time the shooting stopped in the early hours of 15th May, a teacher lay beheaded. A commuter was dead. And 46 souls – seven teachers and 39 pupils – had vanished into the bush.
Amid street protests, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Oyo State Wing, declared three days of spiritual supplication, calling on every school across the state to observe a joint prayer session at noon each day. This was last Sunday. But for the families of Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School, and Community High School Ahoro-Esinele, the waiting has already become unbearable.
A Roll Call Of The Missing
The abducted teachers read like a staff meeting notice turned nightmare: Read the roll call:
· Mrs Alamu FOLAWE – Principal, Community High School
· Mr Ojo JONATHAN – Vice Principal
· Mr Olatunde Zacchaeus
· Mr John OLALEYE
· Mr Michael OYEDOKUN – confirmed beheaded during the attack
· Mrs OLADEJI
· Mary AKANBI – Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School
The pupils, some as young as two years old, were taken from four communities.
From Ahoro-Esinele: Rashida Tajuudeen (11), Ahmed Ramoni (8), Abdulsalam Toyib (4), Baraka Abioye (16), Fatimo Jimoh (15), Hassan Azeez (14), Joshua Adeleke (13).
From Yawota: Samuel Oyedele (7), Emmanuel Oyedele (4), Idowu Taiwo (4), Christianah Akanbi (2), Juwon Sunday (7), Sikiru Salami (3), Soliu Salami (4), Ojo Joseph (8), Lydia Adewole (8), Testimony Jacob (5), Kehinde Kaosara (7), Sewa Seyi (7), Waliya Bello (4), Lydia Olohunloluwa (7), Damilare Oderinde (8), Deborah Adebowale (5), Aisha Oguntowo (10), Lege Taiwo (12), Balkis Ayanwale (8), Asa David (10).
From Oniya Community: Shuaibu Aliyu (10), Ahmed Aliyu (7), Muiz Aliyu (5), Jomiloju Ogunlola (6).
From Alawusa Community: Agune Noah (8), Elizabeth Abadi (5), Tosin Abadi (9), Pius Stephen (5), Hannah Ojo (14), Habidat Ayanwale (7), Mary Gabriel (6), Jacob Gabriel.
Forty-six names. Forty-six empty chairs!!!
‘We Heard The Crying Stop’
A resident of Yawota, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, described the assault as “organised and swift”.
“They came on motorcycles, about 15 of them. They went straight to the principals’ offices first. Then they started pulling children out of classrooms – the youngest ones first. We heard the crying, and then we heard the crying stop. That was worse.”
One teacher, Mr Michael Oyedokun, a dedicated Mathematics teacher, has his head decapitated and dangled on a social media horror by the terrorists who did a video of it. His offence, still unsubstantiated. This happened on Saturday. Earlier on Friday during the abduction, one of the teachers was shot dead!
Murdered Michael Oyedokun
Official response: fasting and frustration
The state government has since deployed security formations to track the captives, but no rescue has been reported as of Sunday evening. Security agents also met resistance in the hands of the marauders as grenades took over the stage. Some fatalities were recorded. The NUT’s State Secretary, Salami Olukayode, signed an emergency circular acknowledging the limits of the current operation.
“While the government is currently exploring all possible measures through various security formations to ensure the safety and rescue of the captives,” the circular reads, “we humbly appeal to all our teeming members… to commit ourselves into a three-day fasting and prayers.”
The union’s call for a joint prayer session at 12:00 noon starting from Monday May 18 across all schools has been met with both devotion and despair.
“I will fast,” said a secondary school teacher in neighbouring Ogbomoso, wiping her eyes. “But I am tired of fasting. I want my colleagues back. I want the two-year-old Christianah back. What sin has a two-year-old committed?”
‘Three Motorcycles From Yawota, One From The School’
The motorcycle thefts – three from Yawota community, one from Community High School – have received less attention than the kidnappings. But villagers see them as a telling detail.
“They didn’t come in a lorry,” said a shopkeeper near the Ahoro-Esinele junction. “They came on bikes. They needed more bikes to carry the children away. So they took ours. That is how poor we are: the bandits steal our transport to steal our children.”
A Community Suspended Between Prayer And Panic
The NUT’s motto – Service and Justice – hangs above the union’s Ibadan headquarters. But justice feels distant. Service has become survival.
On Saturday evening, a group of mothers gathered outside Yawota Baptist Nursery. The Inspector General of Police, Tunde Disu, was there on a visit. They sang hymns. The women wailed. No children played inside. The school’s flag flew at half-mast.
One mother, whose four-year-old daughter is among the missing, held a small pink shoe. “She wore these on Friday morning. I tied the laces myself. I told her, ‘Learn well.’ Now I just want to tie them again.”
Another, a teacher, Mary Temitope Ahindahunsi, amid hot tears and fear face to face to lethal guns, pleaded with President Bola Tinubu and Governor Makinde to do all they can to rescue them from the marauders. The video, obviously recorded and posted on social media by the brave terrorists, could send shivers to the bravest of men!
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has been having sleepless nights, figuring out the way out. For a moment, he now thinks less of politics. At a press conference on Monday, he’d hinted his government is ready to negotiate the terrorists, at least if that would spare the precious lives.
The NUT’s three-day prayer began Monday morning. At noon of each day, across hundreds of schools in Oyo State, teachers and remaining pupils would bow their heads. They would ask for the safe return of 45 living souls – and for the strength to bury the 46th.
But as the sun sets over the bush where the motorcycles disappeared, one question echoes louder than any prayer:
Who is next?
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