Oyo School Abduction: Principal Recounts Brutality, Forced Treks, and Killings During 56-Day Ordeal
The principal of Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele, has recounted the harrowing details of her 56-day captivity alongside 45 pupils and teachers after a terrorist attack on multiple schools in Oyo State. She described forced night treks, beatings of children, and the targeted killing of two male teachers.
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For 56 days, the forest paths of Oyo State echoed with the footsteps of terrified children and teachers, their bodies weakened by hunger, their spirits battered by violence. Mrs. Rachael Alamu, principal of Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele, has broken her silence on the ordeal she and 45 others endured after being abducted on May 15 by terrorists who attacked three schools in the Oriire Local Government Area.
Speaking after her rescue on July 10, Alamu recounted a campaign of calculated terror. The kidnappers, determined to evade security forces, forced their captives on nightly treks through dense underbrush. 'They carried the youngest three children. The secondary school girls carried some of the smaller pupils, while the others had to walk. We fell many times,' she told Premium Times. These grueling marches, lasting up to four hours, were not merely logistical maneuvers—they were instruments of control, wearing down resistance and ensuring compliance.
The brutality extended beyond physical exhaustion. Children were subjected to severe beatings. According to Alamu, the youngest captives, Waliya and Salam, suffered the worst. 'They would cover their mouths with clothes, tie them and beat them severely,' she said, a detail reported by Premium Times. The psychological toll was immense, as silence was enforced through violence and fear.
Perhaps the most chilling revelation was the deliberate killing of two male teachers, Michael and Deacon. As Alamu told This Day, the kidnappers executed them in a calculated move: 'Terrorists killed Michael, Deacon to force Govt to a deal.' Their deaths were not random acts of cruelty but strategic executions intended to increase pressure on authorities. The message was clear—compliance would be rewarded, resistance punished.
The abduction of Mr. Owoade, headmaster of Nomadic Basic School, Ogodu, followed a separate incident, when he was seized while working on his farm, according to Peoples Gazette. His rescue was confirmed by police, marking a partial end to a wave of violence that has shaken educational communities across the region.
Now freed, the survivors face the long journey of recovery. Governor Seyi Makinde has pledged full support for the returning pupils and teachers, as reported by This Day. Yet, the scars of those 56 days—of night treks through the dark, of muffled cries, of lives extinguished as bargaining chips—will endure long after the physical rescue is complete.