ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has described the abduction of pupils and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area as a moment of national distress, insisting that the tragedy should not be reduced to political arguments but handled with unity and coordinated action.
The governor made the appeal on Tuesday while addressing a peaceful protest led by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the Governor’s Office in Ibadan, where demonstrators demanded urgent action to rescue the victims.
Makinde assured residents that government and security agencies were fully engaged in efforts to secure the release of those abducted, stressing that all available security resources were being deployed.
“This is a time of national distress. It is not the time to trade blame. It is not the time to play politics,” he said.
The governor also shared a personal reflection, noting that his late father was a teacher who once served in a community close to the location of the attack, making the incident deeply emotional for him.
“I am personally distressed. My own father was a primary school teacher. He actually taught at Awole Dada, less than 15 kilometres away from where this incident happened. My father was there in 1959 and 1960. If something like this had happened to him, maybe I wouldn’t even have been born,” he said.
He urged stakeholders to avoid blame-shifting between levels of government, insisting that insecurity requires collective responsibility.
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“This is not the time for us to say it is the President that should have handled this, or it is the Governor, or the local government. This is a time to pull together as one,” he added.
Makinde condemned the attackers, describing them as inhumane and stressing the urgency of the rescue operation.
“We are not dealing with normal human beings. Just think briefly, how will somebody take a fellow human being and slaughter him? Is that somebody that is normal? These are not normal people,” he said.
He appealed for public trust in ongoing rescue efforts, assuring that security agencies deployed from the federal level had been on ground for weeks tracking the perpetrators.
“I’ve heard from the Federal Government. Security operatives have been here for the past two weeks. They spent their salaries here. I have been meeting with them morning and night, sometimes three or four times in a day,” he disclosed.
Makinde cautioned against actions that could worsen tensions or embolden criminal groups, calling for unity in the face of the crisis.
“We shouldn’t provide oxygen to the people that want to see us divided. The response at this time should be to pull together and allow the government to see this through,” he warned.
He further assured parents, teachers, and residents that efforts were ongoing and expressed confidence in a positive outcome.
“I can give you the assurance that our children and their teachers, by the grace of God, will return safely,” he said.
Earlier, the Oyo State Chairman of the NUT, Fatai Hassan, said the attack had heightened fear among teachers, noting that 39 students and seven teachers were abducted, while one teacher was killed during the incident involving four schools.
“We are here for no other purpose but to sympathise with ourselves on this dastardly incident that occurred on the 15th of May,” he said.
Hassan urged the government to strengthen school security and expedite efforts to rescue the victims, warning that teachers were now afraid to continue classroom activities.
“We are here to charge His Excellency, the Governor of Oyo State, to please do more in fast-tracking the quick release of these people in captivity. Teachers are now living in palpable fears. We cannot attend classes with our open minds anymore,” he said.
He added that members would stay away from classrooms until the abducted victims were released.
Oyo NLC Chairman, Kayode Martins, also condemned the attack, warning that insecurity had become a nationwide threat affecting all citizens, not just teachers and students.
“In Nigeria today no life is safe,” he said, adding that the primary responsibility of government remains the protection of lives and property.
He urged swift action, saying labour would support efforts to rescue the victims while warning against allowing the tragedy to repeat itself.
Students under the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), led by President Babatunde Akinteye, also joined the protest, describing the abductors as “monsters” and calling for urgent national action.
Akinteye said students nationwide were united in demanding the safe return of the victims but emphasized that protests had been restrained to avoid disrupting ongoing rescue operations.
At the end of the demonstrations, all groups reaffirmed their demand for coordinated government action and immediate rescue of the abducted pupils and teachers.