- Mrs. Rachael Alamu, the rescued principal of Community High School in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, has detailed how terrorists executed two of her colleagues during their grueling 56-day captivity.
- The captors beheaded the school’s Mathematics teacher, Mr. Michael Oyedokun, on their second day in captivity, and later shot dead a second teacher, Mr. Esiyan Adegboye, in an deliberate bid to pressure the government into meeting their demands.
- The surviving victims, including several young schoolchildren, spent nearly two months in an open forest under severe weather conditions, enduring physical assault and emotional trauma before their successful rescue by security forces.
The harrowing details of the 56 days spent in the custody of heavily armed kidnappers have begun to emerge following the successful rescue of the students and staff of Community High School, located in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Eko Hot Blog reports that speaking to journalists at the State Government House on Monday, the rescued school principal, Mrs. Rachael Alamu, recounted the tragic execution of two teachers who were abducted alongside her and several pupils.
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According to Mrs. Alamu, the kidnappers intentionally murdered the educators as a leverage tactic, believing that the high-profile nature of the abduction would force the hands of both state and federal authorities to rapidly meet their ransom and logistical demands.
The first victim, a Mathematics teacher identified as Mr. Michael Oyedokun, was brutally beheaded in the kidnappers’ camp just forty-eight hours after the initial abduction.
The second educator, 49-year-old Mr. Esiyan Adegboye, was shot dead by the terrorists during the initial raid and was later laid to rest by his family in Ogbomoso on May 22.
The surviving captives spent the vast majority of their 56-day ordeal exposed to the elements in an open forest, struggling to survive heavy rainfall, scorching heat, and severe physical exhaustion while trying to keep the young children emotionally stable under the constant threat of violence.
While Mrs. Alamu disclosed that she was spared from direct physical abuse, she painted a grim picture of the treatment meted out to the younger pupils in their care.
The kidnappers routinely beat the children and tied their mouths shut whenever they cried, made noise, or showed signs of panic.
The rescue, which was coordinated through joint operations involving the military and allied federal security agencies, culminated in the safe release of the surviving hostages over the weekend.
Following their extraction, the victims were kept under close medical and psychosocial observation at the Military Hospital in Ibadan, where they received visits from key stakeholders, including Governor Seyi Makinde and the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli.
The rescued teachers and pupils were officially handed over to the Oyo State Government on Monday.
Video footage capturing their arrival at the state secretariat showed heavily armed military personnel escorting the visibly exhausted survivors from security vans into the administrative offices.
Following the successful operation, Governor Makinde called for a comprehensive investigation, emphasizing the need for transparency in addressing the security lapses that permitted the prolonged abduction.
Meanwhile, local community leaders and academic bodies, including the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) management, have commended the collaborative efforts of the state and federal governments while urging the establishment of permanent security outposts in vulnerable boundary communities.
