Security agencies have traced the associates of the kidnappers holding 39 schoolchildren and seven teachers abducted in Oriire local government area of Oyo State, a breakthrough that has reportedly shaken the abductors and increased the chances the captives will soon be released.
Security sources told newsmen that painstaking investigation, backed by Department of State Services intelligence, identified members of the kidnapping gang and traced several of their associates across the country, a discovery that has left the abductors realizing just how far security agencies have penetrated their network. Their confidence has been shaken, and they are now showing greater willingness to release the children, one source said, adding that a combined team of DSS operatives and military personnel continues closing in on the group’s location less than two weeks after security forces tightened a cordon around their hideout in the National Park forest, blocking escape routes.
The children and teachers were abducted on May 15, 2026, when armed terrorists attacked the Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota and two other schools in Ahoro Esinle and Alawusa. The kidnappers initially demanded the release of detained terrorist commanders, ransom payment, two Hilux vehicles and the implementation of Sharia related laws, including the freedom of Mahmud Usman, also known as Abu Bara’a or Abbas Mukhtar, and his deputy Abubakar Abba, alias Isah Adam or Mahmud Al Nigeri, both senior figures in Ansaru, a Boko Haram breakaway faction, whom the DSS had arrested the previous year. Sources say sustained pressure has since forced the abductors to abandon several of those original demands and instead focus on negotiating a safe exit for themselves in exchange for releasing the captives.
Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, said the rescue operation is making tremendous progress and that troops involved are advancing toward a successful conclusion. He used the occasion to outline broader security gains across the country: more than 1,872 insurgents neutralised in the North East under Operation Hadin Kai, a recent joint operation with United States partners that eliminated senior Islamic State commander Abu Bilal al Minuki, and improved security in the North Central under Operations Enduring Freedom, Whirlwind and the newly established Savannah Shield, spanning Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Kwara, Niger and parts of Kogi. He said the South East has also seen improvement, while sustained operations against oil theft and pipeline vandalism have helped boost production in the South South, and described the South West as one of the country’s most peaceful regions, framing the Oriire abduction as an isolated incident rather than a broader pattern.
Shaibu also disclosed that President Tinubu has approved a new Nigerian Army Depot in Amasiri Edda, Ebonyi State, which alongside existing depots in Zaria and Osogbo is expected to lift the army’s annual recruitment and training capacity to roughly 28,000 personnel, adding that the army has also acquired additional armoured personnel carriers, mine resistant vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles, with troops continuing specialised training both within and outside Nigeria.
