Oyo abduction: NLC, CSOs, teachers join nationwide protest in Ogun

Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), and civil society organizations in Ogun State joined a nationwide protest on Tuesday over the abduction of students and teachers in Oyo State.

Two weeks earlier, 39 students and seven teachers were taken in an attack that targeted several schools in Oriire local government area of Oyo State.

The affected schools include Community Grammar School and L.A Primary School, both in Ahoro-Esinele, and Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota.

The abductors also beheaded Mr. Micheal Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher abducted from Community Grammar School.

Daily Post reported that some Ogun residents, including nursing mothers, had protested on Monday.

During Tuesday’s protest by the NUT and other labour unions, participants carried banners with slogans such as “Set our teachers, pupils free from captivity,” “Our chalks were broken by guns: enough we say,” “Release our teachers and learners unconditionally,” “Stop the attacks on schools,” “Government should rise up to its security responsibilities,” “Unchain our children, unchain Nigeria’s destiny,” “NUT is in solids with its members in captivity,” “One abducted child, one nation in chain,” and “Nigeria, our blackboards are turning into graveyards.”

They also sang solidarity songs and used megaphones to explain their plight to the public as they marched around Abeokuta.

“Electricity zero, security zero, the only system that we are managing is education and now they want to collapse it. We are not going to agree with them. We shall resist all their plans,” they said.

Speaking to Daily Post, the National Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Comrade Yinka Folarin, urged security agencies to double their efforts and place more premium on the value of human life.

He said the protest was also meant to raise residents’ consciousness on the need to join the fight against terrorism and violence, stressing that “Nigeria belongs to us all.”

“As a matter of responsibility, we are not supposed to live in fear in our country. The government must create an enabling environment and the people must be ready to support government efforts in the maintenance of peace and sustainable security,” he added.

“We are in a dilemma right now in the country. Our right to movement cannot be guaranteed and in a very barbaric manner we can see the dehumanisation and humiliation suffered by the victims. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and that is why every well‑meaning Nigerian and stakeholder must rise to voice for the voiceless,” he said.

Also, the National President of NUT, Comrade Titus Amba, represented by Comrade Titilope Adebanjo, the National Vice President, asserted that teachers now live in fear, appealing to President Bola Tinubu to see the issue as a matter of urgency and secure their release immediately.

He said, “Education is the only living legacy that we have in this country for now but, it is a pity that the insecurity of this nation wants to collapse the only living legend that we are having. Education is hitting the rock if care is not taken. How can we be in the classes and be looking here and there for us to be secured?”

“It is not the best, teachers are in the classes with fear, students are in the classes with fear. This is not suppose to be.”

The Ogun State NLC chairman, Hameed Benco, expressed his anger, stressing that the protest was just a warning to the government as drastic action will follow soon if nothing is done.

“We want all the abductees to be released and this nationwide protest is to express our feeling to the federal government after which another drastic action will likely follow. We expect the Federal Government to act now.”

He urged teachers to stay prayerful and resolute, while calling on the Ogun State government to intensify intellectual policing, adding that security is everyone’s business and residents must “see something, say something.”

Corroborating him, the Ogun State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Sewakanu Oladipupo, urged the government to strengthen security architecture across the country to curb further abductions in schools.

“Seeing our members treated like criminals gives us fear. It’s a traumatic period for teachers across the country. We are all in fear, no one is safe, nowhere is secured, including our parents are not at rest,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives in Ogun State, Comrade Adejoke Bello, lamented that the children are too young to be experiencing the physiological and mental trauma they are going through.