For 56 days, the small farming communities of Ahoro-Esiele and Yawota in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State held their breath. On Friday, July 10, they could finally exhale.
The pupils and teachers abducted on May 15 from three schools — Baptist Nursery and Primary School, L.A. Primary School, and Community Grammar School — have regained their freedom, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Finally, all the kidnapped pupils and teachers in Orire, Oyo have been rescued by our security agencies,” Onanuga wrote on X, confirming what worried families had prayed for since gunmen stormed the schools during morning classes nearly two months ago.
It was an attack that shocked the nation not just for its scale, but for who it targeted. Children as young as two. Teachers still holding attendance registers. A toddler who happened to be with his mother, one of the abducted educators. In total, close to 50 people were taken in a coordinated raid that spread fear far beyond Oyo’s borders and reopened old wounds from Chibok and Dapchi.
The days that followed were brutal. A mathematics teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was killed by his captors as security operatives closed in — a warning shot meant to slow the pursuit. Reports of ransom demands tied to detained Ansaru commanders swirled for weeks, even as officials publicly denied that any money had changed hands. Teachers across the state walked off the job in protest. Mothers in Yawota, offered rice and cash by a visiting federal delegation, famously refused it: they wanted their children, not palliatives.
Now, after 56 days that tested a nation’s patience and a state’s security architecture, the story has the ending everyone was praying for. Details of the rescue operation haven’t been made public yet, and officials have asked residents to await further updates through verified channels.
For the families of Oriire, though, the how may matter less than the fact: their children are coming home.
