Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde has said that his administration is holding talks with the abductors of students, teachers, and a school principal kidnapped in the state, insisting that the victims are still alive and will be safely rescued.
He made the disclosure in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Tuesday while addressing protesters that included social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan.
Makinde further explained that although he does not ordinarily support negotiating with bandits, his administration has had to adopt extraordinary measures because of the sensitive nature of the abduction involving nursery and primary school children.
He also stated that, apart from the teacher whom terrorists reportedly beheaded in a video they released, the government has not received any information suggesting that any of the abducted children or other victims have died, despite their over one month in captivity.
He said, “Because of the nature of the security situation at this moment, I cannot divulge a lot of information. But I can tell you that there’s no information that any of those children or their teachers have died. That’s certain.
“And because it is a rescue operation, and this is the first time they’ve done it to nursery and primary schoolchildren… This is the first time. And these are children that cannot even run or do anything for themselves.
“So the operation to rescue them is a special type of operation if we don’t want to lose any of those children.”
Speaking further, The Oyo State governor expressed personal anguish over the prolonged captivity of the children, saying he could relate to the pain of the victims’ families because he also has children.
