…hails President Tinubu’s coordinated Military rescue
While the entire nation is in a state of profound relief following the safe return of the 39 pupils and 5 teachers of Community Grammar School, who spent 56 gruelling days in captivity, Governor Makinde has chosen to use the trauma of innocent children to play low-level politics and cast unnecessary aspersions on Nigeria’s sovereign institutions.
We view the Governor’s formal broadcast calling for the United Nations human rights and accountability mechanisms to scrutinize a domestic security operation as an outright insult to the Nigerian Armed Forces, the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigeria Police Force. These gallant men and women risked their lives—with some unfortunately paying the supreme price during the operations—to dismantle the kidnappers’ logistics networks and force an unconditional release without yielding to the terrorists’ criminal demands.
For a sitting Chief Security Officer of a state to look away from his own constitutional responsibilities and demand a foreign intervention is a clear admission of sub-national failure and a lazy attempt to pass the buck. Security remains a shared constitutional responsibility. We must ask Governor Makinde: What did his administration do with the massive security votes and exponentially increased federal allocations (FAAC) entering Oyo State to secure communities bordering the Old Oyo National Park before this tragedy occurred? Why did it take 56 days of agony for local intelligence mechanisms under his direct authority to provide the actionable data that federal forces eventually had to execute?
The PBAT Door-to-Door Movement stands resolutely with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR). We commend the President’s quiet, dogged, and unyielding posture throughout the 56-day crisis. Rather than engaging in media showmanship or entering into compromise arrangements with bandits, the Tinubu administration stood firm, neutralised key terror informants, arrested eight core members of the syndicate currently in DSS custody, and insisted that the rule of law take its course against detained kingpins.
We remind Governor Makinde that the people of Oyo State elected an executive governor to govern, collaborate, and protect them, not a resident international critic who rushes to external bodies to score cheap political headlines ahead of future electoral ambitions. True leadership aligns with domestic institutions in times of national trial; it does not seek to delegitimise them on the global stage.
We urge the rescued pupils, teachers, and their families to remain strong as they undergo medical and psychosocial rehabilitation under the care of the Division 2 Nigerian Army Medical Services. We also charge the Oyo State Government to look inward, accept the President’s directive to fortify school environments, and actively collaborate with federal agencies rather than undermining national sovereignty through political grandstanding.
