A coordinated wave of terror targeted at classrooms in both the South-West and the North-East has stoked fear among many who are slowly coming to terms with a security crisis that has been left unattended for years.
Two weeks ago, scores of children from Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State and the Mussa District in Borno State were abducted on the same day and tortured, exposing the collapse of security architecture across the nation. It also showed that the South West has become the latest epicentre of an escalated wave of banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and farmer-herder conflicts, fueling concerns that a region once regarded as a safe haven has slowly fallen from grace.
Schoolchildren are the greatest casualty of this shift. Data tracked by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, ACLED, reports 2,416 school children kidnapped across 26 school attacks and 13 states. In Oyo State, children between the ages of two and four have been the victims of heartbreak and torture. To make matters worse, Michael Oyedokun, one of the kidnapped teachers from Oyo, was beheaded online, while government officials have been pressed to negotiate rather than consider a rescue.
Responding to the turn of events, Governor Seyi Makinde painted a grim picture of a “fluid and difficult” situation. Speaking from his private residence in Ibadan, the governor officially confirmed the initial abduction of 32 victims—comprising 18 primary school pupils from 1st Baptist Primary and Nursery School, seven secondary students from Community Secondary School, and seven teachers. However, civil society tracking of the coordinated Oriire attacks later indicated the number of victims could be as high as 46, including a two-year-old child named Christianah Akanbi.
