IN the aftermath of what is now known as the first major school-targeted abduction in southwest Nigeria, The ICIR visited Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, where gunmen attacked three schools and abducted dozens of pupils, students, and staff. In this report, parents and community members recount the terrifying morning that changed their lives and turned their communities into ghost settlements.

Khadija Umar looked exhausted and emotionally drained. Her face bearing the strain of days without sleep as she spoke about her 8-year-old abducted son, Muhammed Ibrahim.

Seated among other grieving parents, Umar’s son was among the dozens of children abducted when armed men stormed Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, Oriire Local Government of Oyo state on May 15. The gunmen had also attacked two other schools in the state.

“For the past days, I have not slept or rested,” she told The ICIR, in a trembling voice. “After everything calmed down, we wanted to go and get our children, and that was when we realised they had taken them.”

Relieving the horror of that day, the grieving mother said the gunmen had announced their arrival on motorcycles, wearing military uniforms. Like many others, she mistook them for actual soldiers in pursuit of criminals. Until sporadic gunshots erupted, forcing her and several residents to scamper for safety. 

When the gunfire subsided and frightened residents began to emerge from their hideouts, Umar made the discovery that threw her into panic and days of sleepless nights. The terrorists had stormed her son’s school, which is about 10 minutes away, and whisked him away.

Days later, the pain remains fresh. She says some private individuals and politicians recently brought money to the affected parents but they rejected it. “We told them we don’t want money,” Umar said. “It is our children we want.”

The mother of five is one of dozens of parents whose lives were shattered after coordinated attacks on three schools in Oriire Local Government Area. The affected schools are Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, Community Grammar School and L.A Primary School in Esin Ele, marking what appears to be the first large-scale school-targeted abduction in southwest Nigeria.

Residents say on the day of the attack, armed men had invaded the communities, surrounding schools and abducting pupils, students, and staff, including Alamo Folawe, the Vice Principal of Community Grammar School. They told The ICIR that a total of 46 persons, including seven teachers and 39 students, were abducted from the schools while four motorcycles were snatched from villagers.

Since the incident, schools have been shut down and entire communities transformed into ghost settlements, plunging families into uncertainty.

The morning the gunmen came

That Friday had started like any other day in Yawota and Esin Ele. Parents prepared their children for school, farmers set out for their fields, and residents settled into their routines, unaware that within minutes, their communities would descend into chaos.

A few minutes after 9 a.m., armed men riding motorcycles and dressed in military uniforms stormed the communities. Residents had initially mistaken them for security personnel responding to the growing insecurity around the area. That assumption quickly dissolved when gunfire erupted.

According to multiple eyewitness accounts, the attackers split into groups and simultaneously targeted Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, Community Grammar School, and L.A Primary School in Esin Ele. The coordination of the assault left little room for escape. In Yawota, the gunmen stormed the unfenced school premises with ease, firing shots into the air as terrified pupils and teachers scattered.

Some children fled through classroom windows in the opening moments of the attack before the assailants blocked possible escape routes. Others, particularly younger pupils who were too frightened or too small to escape, were rounded up. Witnesses said the attackers moved quickly, forcing children onto motorcycles, sometimes loading several onto a single bike.

As the attack unfolded in Yawota, another group struck Esin Ele, where both the primary and secondary schools were attacked almost simultaneously. Residents said the armed men appeared organised and heavily armed, moving victims from one point to another with calculated speed. When motorcycles proved insufficient, they reportedly seized vehicles, including one belonging to a school staff, to transport abducted children deeper into nearby forest routes.

Days after the attack, the affected communities remain largely deserted. Families have fled, schools are shut and farms have been abandoned. “Everything we planted is there,” a resident, Olufemi Afolabi, said. “We cannot access it now. Animals are eating it.”

In Esin-Ile, classrooms still tell the story of sudden terror when The ICIR visited. School bags remain where children left them. Exercise books lie open. Tiny sandals sit abandoned. No lessons are taking place.

For many parents, even if their children return, trust in the schools has collapsed.

“I never thought I would withdraw my child,” one of the parents, Ojo Adekunle said. “But if he comes back, I will remove him.”

Agonies of victims’ parents

There is an old saying in many Yoruba communities that it is easier to mourn a dead child than to live with the torment of not knowing where that child is. For Sikiru Abiodun, that painful proverb has become a daily reality since armed men abducted his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Abdulsalam Sikiru.

Describing the toddler as unusually bright for his age, Abiodun said his son was well known and loved in the community. Like many parents in Yawota, he had started that Friday morning without the slightest indication that disaster was approaching.

He was sitting outside when he saw armed men arriving on motorcycles. At first, neither he nor the other residents suspected danger. According to him, the men suddenly diverted toward the school, and before residents could fully understand what was happening, gunshots rang out across the community. Panic spread immediately, with residents scrambling for safety.

“We thought they had killed all the children in the school,” he recalled.

In the confusion, some residents asked him to alert local vigilantes. But even as he tried to navigate the chaos, he found himself running into another group of attackers who had apparently split into separate units to carry out the coordinated assault. Abiodun said he narrowly escaped, but not without the terrifying realisation that the attack had been carefully planned.

For Abiodun, the tragedy was devastating, but not entirely shocking. He said the community had experienced recurring security threats in the past, even though though residents had never successfully confronted the armed men.

Since the abduction however, schools have emptied, with frightened parents unwilling to send their children back. But beyond the fear lies a deeper emotional torment for parents like Abiodun, who say the uncertainty is harder to bear than grief itself.

“An adage says it is better for your child to die than for your child to be missing,” he concluded.

Days after the attack, grief remains fresh across Yawota and Esin Ele, where many parents still struggle to process how an ordinary school morning turned into a nightmare. The panic was further fuelled by the video released by the abductors, which showed one of the teachers slain. The victim was later identified as Michael Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher. The rest were videoed pleading for help.

For Esuola Mutairu, the emotional burden is even heavier. The attack took four of his children — Ahmed, 8; Muiz, 5; Sohibu, 12; and Jomiloju, 7 — all in one morning.

Mutairu said he had sent them to school that day, believing they were heading to a safe environment to learn, only to later hear that armed men had stormed the schools, rounded up children, and marched them toward the forest around the reserve.

Struggling to conceal the pain in his voice, he told The ICIR  as he described the days since the abduction as some of the hardest of his life. “It has been heartbreaking,” he said. “We have not experienced peace of mind.”

He said sleep had become almost impossible, as every passing hour without information deepened the family’s anguish.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “Four children! We sent them to school to learn, now we don’t even know where they are.”

Deborah Ayano’s granddaughter, 14-year-old Taiwo Olunlege, was among the victims. According to the old woman, her abducted granddaughter had dreams, saying she often spoke confidently about what she hoped to become.

“She used to tell me she would make it in life and carry me inside her car,” she recalled.

She said the emotional toll has been severe. Since the abduction, she has barely eaten, struggled to sleep, and remained in constant distress over her granddaughter’s fate.

“They even brought sleeping pills for me,” she said. “I still couldn’t sleep. If we survive this, we will leave here,” she said.

Olohunloluwa Femi described his nine-year-old daughter, Lydia, as a child whose love for education often outweighed the family’s financial struggles.

He said there were times he discouraged his children from going to school because he simply could not afford some of the associated costs, but Lydia would insist. According to him, she was often the first to wake up in the morning, eager to prepare for school. That determination now haunts him.

The father was on his farm when gunshots shattered the calm that Friday morning. Like many residents in the agrarian community, he had gone out early for work, unaware that armed men were invading the schools back home. It was his older son who called with the devastating news.

When he rushed back, panic had gripped the community. Residents had gathered in confusion, and reports had already emerged that one person had been killed.

He said the most painful for him to bear is the cruel irony that his daughter’s determination to get an education may have placed her directly in harm’s way. “It is that same desire to learn that has now taken her to the kidnappers’ den,” he reiterated.

Like many others in the community, he said insecurity had been lurking around for some time. For years, they heard stories of school kidnappings in distant parts of the country and never imagined such violence would one day arrive at their doorstep. But in recent months, armed attacks had become a growing concern.

“Sometimes they kill people on farms,” he said adding that, the attack has destroyed whatever confidence remained in the safety of local schools.

Warning signs ignored?

For some residents, the attack did not come without warning. Ojo Adekunle, whose son Joseph was abducted, said the community had repeatedly raised concerns about insecurity.

“We had been noticing security issues and reporting them to the police, but they did not take us seriously,” he said.

Residents said there had been past attempted attacks and rising movements of armed men in nearby areas.

“It is not the first time they have been disturbing this community,” said Olohunlowufemi, whose daughter was abducted.

Some residents said local vigilantes existed, but a formal security presence remained weak.

One of the community leaders in Yowata, Emmanuel Alade, explained that there have been times when kidnappers killed one of the residents trying to deliver ransom to secure the release of a victim. A resident had also been killed before the attack.

The ICIR also reported that on January 6, 2026, armed attackers launched a deadly assault on Old Oyo National Park located in the Oriire Local Government, killing five forest guards and sending shockwaves through surrounding communities.

Residents of Igbeti, Igboho, Saki, and surrounding communities in the Local Government had told The ICIR at the time that criminal gangs used the forest as a launchpad for kidnappings, farm invasions, and deadly raids, retreating into the park after each operation.

A new front in Nigeria’s school abduction crisis?

Until recently, mass school abductions in Nigeria were largely seen as a crisis confined to the country’s northern region, where armed groups have repeatedly exploited weak rural security, porous borders, and delayed emergency response to targeted schools.

But the coordinated attack on schools in Oyo has confirmed that the threat has now spread to the South West, previously considered relatively safer.

Yawota and Esin Ele, the communities affected by the Oyo attack, are agrarian settlements in the Ogbomoso axis, where many residents depend on farming for survival. Like many rural communities across Nigeria, they are surrounded by bush paths, isolated routes, and limited security presence, conditions that can make coordinated attacks easier to execute and harder to repel.

On the day of the Oyo abduction, another school attack in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria, saw armed men abduct scores of children from schools, underscoring how schoolchildren continue to remain easy targets in Nigeria’s worsening security crisis.

Before then, terrorists had, in November 2025, stormed St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School at Papiri in Niger State, abducting 253 students and 12 staff members in one of the state’s largest school kidnappings in recent years.

The first school abduction that attracted global outrage occurred in April 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. Although some later escaped or were released, several remain unaccounted for, and the attack became a defining symbol of Nigeria’s inability to protect schoolchildren.

Since then, the attacks have continued in waves. In February 2018, Boko Haram abducted 110 schoolgirls from Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, an attack that left at least five students dead. In December 2020, armed men stormed Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State, taking more than 300 boys. The following year, more than 300 schoolgirls were abducted in Jangebe, Zamfara State, while Kaduna recorded multiple school kidnappings, including attacks on the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, Greenfield University, and Bethel Baptist High School.

In March 2024, about 287 pupils were kidnapped from Kuriga in Kaduna State, reigniting national outrage over school insecurity among several other instances.

In response to repeated attacks, the Nigerian government launched the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) in 2014, designed to strengthen security around vulnerable schools, particularly in high-risk regions. Not less than $30 million was spent over the years to school protection programmes, emergency response systems, and broader education security interventions.

Speaking with The ICIR, an Abuja-based education researcher and consultant, Isiaq Oluwatosin, said one of the major reasons school abductions persist is the country’s failure to adapt its school security systems to modern threats.

According to him, many public schools across Nigeria’s rural communities like Esin Ele and Yawota, still operate in physically vulnerable settings with little or no security infrastructure.

“Most schools are still in open fields like they were under colonialism,” he said. “Most are not fenced and lack adequate security architecture.”

He argued that the focus of security should not merely be on responding after attacks occur, but on preventing them through proactive intelligence gathering and threat disruption.

Oluwatosin said the consequences of school abductions stretch far beyond the immediate victims, leaving lasting psychological scars on teachers, pupils, and entire communities.

“Only those children can truly tell what they witnessed. We can only imagine and still not come close to the horrors they may be facing in the hands of total strangers,” he said.

He noted that teachers are also deeply affected, having to grapple with the trauma of seeing children they interact with almost daily suddenly disappear in violent circumstances.

“As a teacher, you become a parent to those students as well. How do you return to teaching when children you saw five times a week are suddenly gone, not because of a holiday, but because of kidnappings? It is a long road to recovery.”

He warned that repeated attacks on schools could worsen Nigeria’s already severe education crisis, especially with the country’s growing population and millions of out-of-school children.

On solutions, he stressed the need for stronger collaboration between communities and security agencies, expanded intelligence gathering, and the urgent strengthening of school protection infrastructure. According to the educationist, “Government must be intentional about its responsibility because security is one of the core reasons people pledge allegiance to the state. Once that trust is broken, dangerous alternatives begin to emerge.”

Government intensifies rescue efforts

Following the attack and the widespread fear it triggered across affected communities, the Oyo State government ordered the temporary closure of primary schools in neighbouring local government areas, including Surulere, Oyo East, Oriire, and Olorunsogo, as a precautionary measure to prevent further attacks and allow security agencies to stabilise the area.

Governor Seyi Makinde also assured residents that the government was committed to securing the safe return of the abducted pupils and teachers, even as the crisis took a darker turn with the reported killing of one of the kidnapped teachers.

Addressing journalists after an emergency security meeting on Sunday, May 18, Makinde described the incident as deeply troubling and appealed for calm, saying authorities were deploying both kinetic and non-kinetic measures in response to the abduction.

He also appealed to community leaders, residents, and religious stakeholders, particularly the Baptist Convention linked to one of the affected schools, to support efforts aimed at securing the victims’ release.

When contacted, Suleman Olanrewaju, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor refused to comment on the incident and directed this reporter to the Police.

The ICIR visited the Ikoyi Ile Divisional Police Command in Oriire Local Government Area but was directed to the Oyo State Police Command. When contacted, the spokesperson of the command, Olushola Ayanlade said efforts were on in collaboration with other security agencies to ensure the safe return of the children and arrest of the perpetrators.

He, however, did not provide further response, as of the time of filing this report.

At the federal level, President Bola Tinubu condemned the killing of the abducted teacher, describing the attack as barbaric while expressing sympathy to the affected families and the Oyo State government.

In a statement by the Presidency, Tinubu said security agencies had been directed to intensify rescue operations and ensure the safe return of all remaining victims.

The president also renewed his call for the establishment of state police, arguing that the persistence of kidnapping and violent attacks across parts of the country had reinforced the need for decentralised policing.

“The IGP, following my instructions, is personally leading the tech-driven operation. We expect a breakthrough soon. The bandits and all their local collaborators will be fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law,” the president said.

For the families in Yawota and Esin Ele, however, the promises offer little immediate comfort. As rescue efforts continue, many remain hold onto hope that the children taken from their classrooms will return home alive.