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President Bola Tinubu has said his administration was prepared to take the fight to the families and communities of the militants who abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State, as he detailed the government’s refusal to negotiate with the criminals.
Tinubu disclosed this while speaking to traditional rulers from Oyo State at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.
He said the abductors demanded both money and the release of jailed members of their gang – conditions the government flatly rejected.
“We refuse to negotiate for ransom. These criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested. That was one of their conditions, outside of the money they were looking for,” Tinubu said.
“And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals. They committed murder, and we were ready to finish with their families, members of their own communities. They grew up somewhere.
“I think we succeeded with your support and prayers. I agree that we should commend the men and women of the armed forces for their excellent performance.
“On behalf of them, I accept your message, and I will forward the same thing and the same message on.”
The Oriire abductions occurred on May 15 when gunmen attacked three schools in Esiele and Yawota communities, taking approximately 39 pupils and seven teachers hostage.
A mathematics teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was decapitated during the attack. The victims were rescued on July 10 after 56 days in captivity.
Tinubu said the rescue operation was only possible because the military had the geographical layout of the forest, adding that the security event taught the government new lessons requiring structural adaptation.
“We refused to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest,” he said.
“We know what it is, and in answer to it, you’ve seen that from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten the response time, to give that response time the teeth that is needed for us to defeat terrorism and banditry.
He added, “It is very necessary, and we are doing so. We have equally embarked upon what was missing; several decades of fears and uncertainty about what to do about security at the local level will be corrected.
“There will be state police, and that state police will have guardrails from abuses. We will protect it from abuses, and you traditional rulers too will have a role to play more.”
He also announced plans to retrain and re-equip forest guards as frontline security assets and pushed for state police with safeguards against abuse.
The President blamed the intensified kidnappings on the security collapse in Nigeria’s Sahel neighbours, saying insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso and the Niger Republic was “adding more fuel to our challenges”.
