Former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (retd.), has highlighted the strategic role played by the Department of State Services in securing the recent release of the 46 teachers and pupils abducted in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State.
In a statement obtained in Osogbo, Osun State, on Monday, the former CDS said that while other security agencies involved in the operation had been widely praised, the DSS, which he described as the principal actor behind the victims’ release, had largely been overlooked.
The Osun-born retired military officer commended the DSS for identifying the kidnappers and tracing their relatives, whose arrest, he said, mounted pressure on the abductors to free their captives.
“The Oriire kidnap victims’ release was initially being credited to the military until one of the released victims told the true story: they were released by the kidnappers, and no kinetic action was involved in that release.”
“The kidnappers even told their victims why they were being released: members of the kidnappers’ families had been arrested and videos of them were sent to the kidnappers.
