Former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has said kidnapping in Nigeria had evolved from isolated incidents into a complex criminal enterprise sustained by financiers, collaborators, and informants embedded within society, and that no president could defeat it unilaterally without collective action from governments at all levels, communities, and citizens.

Speaking during a television interview, Fayose said the security crisis had become so entrenched that it now amounted to a way of life for some people, and that criminal networks operating in forests and remote areas were supported by structures within the very society the president was trying to protect. He said strict enforcement of laws and the willingness to prosecute offenders regardless of ethnic or religious identity were necessary conditions for progress.

He defended President Bola Tinubu’s handling of the crisis, saying the president had inherited significant security and economic challenges and had demonstrated determination in pursuing reforms, while criticizing state governments that placed the entire burden of security on the federal government despite the existence of state security structures and local intelligence networks.

In a controversial moment, Fayose speculated that some security incidents, referencing the recent Oyo abduction, could be exploited for political purposes. The interviewer challenged the claim as a serious allegation lacking evidence, and Fayose acknowledged he was expressing a personal view rather than a factual claim.

Separately, members of the Take-It-Back Movement staged a protest at Mokola Roundabout in Ibadan, one of the city’s busiest junctions, carrying placards and chanting solidarity songs demanding urgent government and security agency action to free the abducted pupils and teachers from Oriire Local Government Area. Demonstrators said Nigerians and Oyo residents were fed up with persistent insecurity.

The protest came less than 24 hours after the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Oyo State, directed all public primary and secondary school teachers across the state to embark on an indefinite strike. In a statement signed by Oyo NUT Chairman Hassan A. Fatai and Secretary Comrade Salami Olukayode, the union said prolonged captivity of the abducted teachers and pupils had created anxiety among teachers, discouraged parents from sending children to school, and heightened tension in affected communities.