President Tinubu Discloses Refusal To Negotiate With Oyo Abductors To Delegations

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told a delegation of Oyo State traditional rulers in Abuja that his government refused to negotiate with or pay ransom to the militants who kidnapped schoolchildren and teachers in Oriire last May.

He said the abductors demanded both money and the release of jailed members of their gang, demands that were flatly rejected, and described the military-led rescue that freed the victims after 56 days as intelligence-driven and successful without ransom.

Tinubu said his recent order to expand the Army from eight to 12 divisions was a direct operational response to the crisis, aimed at shortening response times and giving security forces the numerical and geographic reach needed to defeat terrorism and banditry. He also announced plans to retrain and reequip forest guards as frontline security assets and pushed for state police with safeguards against abuse.

Speaking after receiving the Olubadan of Ibadanland Oba Rashidi Ladoja and other Oyo chiefs, the President urged communities to strengthen local intelligence, thanked the armed forces for their role in the rescue, and called on state governments to invest federal allocations in road infrastructure to improve access for security agencies. The Oriire attack on May 15, 2026, saw roughly 39 pupils and seven teachers taken hostage; a teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was killed. The rescue, concluded on July 10, led to eight arrests and several neutralisations, the Presidency said.

He revealed his directive last week to expand the Army from eight to 12 divisions was a direct operational response to the Oriire school abductions in Oyo State, saying the increase was designed to shorten response times and give security forces the numerical and geographic capacity to defeat terrorism and banditry.

The President, who is speaking publicly about the incident since the rescue of the Oyo abductees on July 10, said, “We refuse to negotiate for ransom. These criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested. That was one of their conditions, outside of the money they were looking for.

“And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals. They committed murder, and we were ready to finish with their families, members of their own communities. They grew up somewhere.

“I think we succeeded with your support and prayers. I agree that we should commend the men and women of the armed forces for their excellent performance.

“On behalf of them, I accept your message, and I will forward the same thing and the same message on,” the President added.

Tinubu said the rescue operation was only possible because the military had a geographical layout of the forest.

He noted that the security event taught the Federal Government new lessons and demanded structural adaptation, adding that the expansion of the army divisions from eight to 12 was a geographical and numerical answer to the Oriire abductions.

“As we emphasise the question of security, each event teaches us new methods, opens our eyes, challenges us to examine and re-examine our architecture, our strategy, our map and operations.

“And you would have seen we’ve given a geographical and numerical answer to the challenges. We refused to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest.

“We know what it is, and in answer to it, you’ve seen that from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten the response time, to give that response time the teeth that is needed for us to defeat terrorism and banditry,” he said.

He continued, “It is very necessary, and we are doing so. We have equally embarked upon what was missing; several decades of fears and uncertainty about what to do about security at the local level will be corrected.

“There will be state police, and that state police will have guardrails from abuses. We will protect it from abuses, and you traditional rulers too will have a role to play more.”

The President blamed the intensified kidnappings and terrorist attacks on the security collapse in Nigeria’s Sahel neighbours.

He argued, “Some of them (terrorists) are non-Nigerians. You see the problem of insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic is adding more fuel to our challenges.

“In fact, that is why we must enhance the capacity of the forest guards as well as create the state police.”

He said forest guards would no longer be limited to wildlife enforcement but would be retrained and re-equipped as a frontline security asset.

“We are equally enhancing the capacity and capability of the forest guards. They are not just to chase antelopes and animals. We are going to have them chase the criminals and deal with them in various forests,” he noted.