In a small, rundown home in Yawota, Oyo State, sisters Deborah Oyedele and Abosede Ojedele comforted each other as they waited for news about their abducted children.
Oyedele’s son and Ojedele’s two sons were among 46 children, aged between two and 16, and school staff kidnapped by gunmen on May 15 from schools in two neighbouring towns near Old Oyo National Park.
Southwestern Nigeria has long been seen as one of the country’s safest regions. But the kidnappings triggered protests, a statewide teachers’ strike and widespread outrage. Afrobeats stars Tiwa Savage and Davido also condemned the incident, wearing a jacket carrying the abductees’ names during a World Cup Countdown Concert in Los Angeles.
Four people, including a hunter who said he joined a failed rescue mission a day after the attack, told AFP the gunmen arrived on motorcycles wearing military uniforms. Nigeria’s army says Boko Haram carried out the kidnapping.
“Hannah has been asking for her brothers and cousin,” Ojedele told AFP while holding her three-year-old daughter. “She does not understand why she has not been seeing them.”
Earlier, the sisters’ mother, Funmilayo Ojo, joined women and community leaders in a meeting with a visiting police official at one of the schools.
While ransom kidnappings are common in northern Nigeria, mass abductions are rare in Oyo State, home to the major education centre of Ibadan.
‘No more schooling’
The attacks have brought unwanted attention to Yawota and Ahoro-Esinele.
Ojedele said she no longer wants her children to attend school in the town.
“There will be no more schooling for them here,” Ojedele said. “No parent would willingly send a child to a school where bandits have kidnapped students.”
Ojo said she regrets encouraging her daughter-in-law, Mary Akanbi, to move to Yawota for a teaching job. Akanbi and her two-year-old child were among 25 people abducted from Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School.
Since Boko Haram’s insurgency began in 2009, jihadist groups have used remote game reserves and national parks as bases. The vast Old Oyo forest reserve stretches across Oyo and Kwara states.
