Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has said President Bola Tinubu neither took nor returned his calls during the 56-day captivity of pupils and teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government Area, despite his efforts to reach the President over the security crisis.
Makinde made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with ARISE News, while discussing his relationship with Tinubu and the response to the May 15 abduction.
Asked when he last spoke with the President, Makinde recalled attempting to reach Tinubu while the abducted children and teachers remained in captivity.
The governor said he tried to see and speak with the President during the crisis but did not receive a return call, adding that the situation remained unchanged.
“Till tomorrow,” Makinde said when pressed on whether Tinubu eventually called him back.
Forty-six pupils and teachers were abducted from three schools in Oriire on May 15. Two teachers died, while 44 victims eventually returned after 56 days in captivity, according to the Oyo State Government.
The Presidency had announced the rescue in July, crediting a joint military, police and intelligence operation, and Tinubu publicly praised the Oyo State Government for working closely with the Federal Government during efforts to secure the abductees’ release.
Makinde’s account of his inability to reach Tinubu therefore points to a breakdown in direct communication between the President and the governor even as security agencies at federal and state levels cooperated operationally.
Makinde has since questioned aspects of the incident and its resolution, calling for independent international scrutiny and setting up a judicial commission of inquiry to establish how the attack occurred, how institutions responded and whether there were intelligence, administrative or operational failures.
During the ARISE News interview, Makinde said his administration would shortly release a white paper on the inquiry, insisting that the circumstances surrounding the abduction should not be normalised.
He also defended Oyo’s wider security record, arguing that the state remained one of the safest in the country despite the Oriire attack.
Makinde said the experience reinforced his support for state police and a security architecture in which critical decisions could be taken closer to affected communities rather than relying exclusively on a centralised system.
The governor said states should be allowed to establish their own police services when ready rather than being forced into a uniform arrangement at the same time, pointing to the South-West’s creation of the Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun, as an example of regional security cooperation.
Makinde had acknowledged federal security agencies’ contribution to the eventual rescue. When receiving the judicial commission’s report in September, he thanked the military, police and intelligence services, alongside Amotekun personnel, hunters and local vigilantes involved in the operation.
He nevertheless maintained that rescuing the victims could not by itself settle questions surrounding the attack.
The governor said his administration would act on the inquiry’s findings and publicly account for the changes required to prevent another attack on schoolchildren.
Demola Ojo
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