•South-West governors
The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has strongly denounced the synchronised kidnapping of more than 45 schoolchildren, students, and teachers across three educational institutions in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, which occurred on Friday, May 22, 2026.
The affected schools include: Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yaworan, Community Grammar School, Esiele, and L. A. Primary School, reports Daily Independent.
In a statement by Secretary-General Oladipo Oyewole, the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) called the attack a “barbaric and unacceptable” assault on education and demanded the immediate deployment of federal forces.
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation said schools must never become hunting grounds for kidnappers and bandits.
The statement said, “In the face of this ugly occurrence, we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately deploy special forces, intelligence assets, and logistics support to ensure the safe and unconditional release of all abducted victims.”
YCE further called on the Governors of the six Southwest states – Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, and Lagos – to rise above partisan boundaries and deploy all available strategic resources through inter-state cooperation to secure lives and property.
The Council stated, “Without gainsaying, Yorubaland cannot afford to become the next frontier of mass abduction.”
The group said the Oyo incident is a symptom of a deeper national security crisis, and therefore, called for the strengthening of community and regional security architecture across Yorubaland.
Yoruba Council of Elders urged Southwest governments to immediately provide necessary materials for the Amotekun Corps, give them more training, better equipment, and legal backing for intelligence-led operations.
The Council also said it is necessary at this period for the six governors to recognize the statutory roles of the office of the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, alongside the contributions of Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, in promoting peace in Yorubaland.
Yoruba Council of Elders said, “The six Southwest governors should therefore engage them, along with similar indigenous security groups and other well-meaning persons and organizations in the Southwest, to spread their dragnet in the protection of our territories.”
The group further called on the Governor of Oyo State to quickly establish a joint security task force for real-time intelligence sharing across the six states to prevent cross-border movement of criminals.
Yoruba Council of Elders also recommended the deployment of Armed School Protection Units in high-risk Local Government Areas, especially those bordering forest reserves.
“Our children all over Yorubaland are not to be used as collateral damage. Every day we delay on this decisive action, we may lose another child’s future and another parent’s peace of mind,” the statement added.
The Council said it stands with the families of the abducted students and sympathizes with the family of the Mathematics teacher who was reportedly killed by the bandits during the attack.
The Yoruba Council of Elders prayed that the Almighty God would grant all those directly affected strength and fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
The abductions have renewed calls for urgent reforms in school security and regional collaboration across the Southwest.
