By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan
Apparently smelling a rat in the entire Oriire pupils and teachers kidnap saga, Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, has taken his suspicions to the United Nations (UN), calling on the world body and international human rights organisations to investigate the abductions.
The abductees were packed into the Old Oyo National Park bush on 15 May, but they were eventually rescued by combined security efforts on 7 July.
The governor called for the UN and international bodies’ investigation into the matter while speaking during a broadcast after receiving the rescued pupils and their teachers in his office in Ibadan on Monday.
But, in a swift reaction, the Presidency tackled the governor, telling him not to subject the matter to politics.
“The circumstances surrounding this incident are sufficiently grave and unusual to warrant independent scrutiny.
“I, therefore, with a full sense of responsibility, as the executive governor of Oyo State, call on the appropriate international human rights and accountability mechanism, including those within the United Nations system, to closely examine the fact surrounding these abductions,” Makinde said.
The abducted persons were handed over to the governor on Monday, after the authorities of the 2 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Odogbo, Ibadan, who led the rescue efforts insisted that they would take adequate medical care of the people for 48 hours before handing them over to the state government for onward transfer to their families.
Presidency Tackles Makinde’s UN Probe Call
However, the Presidency knocked the governor over his call, describing the demand as unnecessary and politically motivated.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga in an interview, said the Federal Government had no objection to an international investigation, if Makinde believed there were unresolved issues.
“The governor has just expressed his opinion that the UN should probe this incident. Our doors are open. Let the UN come if he thinks there is more to it than what our military has explained,” Onanuga said.
He questioned the rationale behind the governor’s demand, arguing that no security agency would deliberately allow schoolchildren to remain in captivity for 56 days.
“Look at those kids. Some of them are just about four or six years old. Will anyone want to deliberately subject them to the trauma they went through for 56 days?” he told The Punch.
According to Onanuga, the rescue operation came at a heavy cost, with some security personnel, including soldiers and members of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, losing their lives during efforts to rescue the victims.
He also noted that one of the abducted teachers was killed while in captivity, insisting it was “unthinkable” that anyone would deliberately orchestrate such an ordeal.
The presidential spokesman accused Makinde, whom he described as a presidential aspirant, of allowing politics to influence his position.
“It is just unfortunate that Mr Makinde, maybe because of politics, because he is a presidential candidate now, doesn’t have any trust in our own institutions and is now calling on an external body to come and investigate,” he said.
Onanuga further described the governor’s demand as “absolutely unnecessary,” accusing him of attempting to weaponise the incident for political purposes.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Makinde (l) and President Bola Tinubu.
