Terrorists Strike Three Oyo Schools

By: Abudu Olalekan

Friday brought terror to corners of Oyo State when gunmen invaded three schools in Oriire Local Government Area. Morning calm shattered as attackers shot a school staff member dead. Multiple teachers and students were dragged away amid chaos. The violence rattled whole towns into silence. Few saw it coming, fewer felt safe afterward.

Out of nowhere, shots rang out when three schools were hit – Baptist Nursery and Primary in Yawota, Community Grammar in Esiele, plus L.A. Primary – all around the same moment. Locals didn’t believe it at first. Reality struck once bullets flew. Screams took over every corner.

Kids sprinted off without shoes when shots cracked overhead. On bikes, attackers zipped between classrooms, guns blazing skyward. Thickets swallowed some students whole as they dove in. Even instructors vanished into the scrub, hearts pounding. No clear shelter came to mind for anyone that day.

It was just after nine when it began, people say, minutes past the morning gathering as lessons got underway. A crowd showed up fast, witnesses told it, then shots rang out without waiting. The air split quick – no warning at all.

“They just came shooting,” one resident said. “Everybody started running. Within minutes they had moved to another school.”

A bullet took Joel Adesiyan’s life amid the disorder at L.A. Primary School, where he served as second-in-command. As screams filled the air, onlookers saw him climb toward a window – seeking safety – when gunfire struck. Grief now weighs heavy across the neighborhood, most deeply felt by fellow educators who knew him as steady under pressure, always working without need for praise, committed fully to teaching. Quiet sorrow follows every mention of his name.

Out of nowhere, a motorbike taxi driver died just by being where things went wrong. Locals told how bullets found him when armed men pushed forward through the streets.

That Friday evening, nobody could say exactly how many students had been taken. The attack pulled away multiple individuals. Among them stood Mrs Rachael Alamu – headteacher at Community Grammar School. Five teaching staff vanished too. Exact totals remained unknown by nightfall.

Faster than anyone expected, armed men rushed room to room as students froze with fear, slipping beneath desks or darting out back routes. A person living nearby watched it unfold.

“They took the principal, teachers and some students,” the source explained. “Everything happened so fast.”

Word got out that the attackers took the principal’s car to move a few kidnapped people away from the village. The vehicle broke down in rocky areas, so they left it behind. Fire was set to the car afterward.

Panic spread faster after that moment. Out of fear the attackers might come back, people started walking away from their houses.

Folks in Esiele watched it unfold – Oba Tajudeen Abioye, their longstanding leader known as the Eleshi Ele, spoke up after masked riders came roaring in on nearly a dozen bikes, weapons in hand. While fear spread fast through the streets, he made clear these weren’t just random strangers; they were attackers who showed up packed tight on motorbikes. Eight machines at least tore down dusty roads toward homes before chaos broke loose under hot sun. Since then, silence has settled uneasily where voices once traded stories late into night.

A loud noise split the air just as folks gathered in the square. The king said it happened right in the middle of their talk.

“People started running in different directions,” he said. “Later we discovered they had attacked the schools and kidnapped pupils and teachers.”

Little kids got caught up in the attack too, he said. That truth weighed most on people’s minds.

It took almost two hours for officers to show up, Oba Abioye pointed out, since there was no police post close by – by then, the attackers were already gone.

Later, security forces – police among them – moved into thick woodland close by, chasing signs left behind after the abduction. Into that stretch walked Commissioner Ayodeji Abimbola of Oyo State police, his presence noted as boots crunched deeper under dense canopy.

Fear lingers in the air, even with everything now in place.

One parent walked streets until dark, eyes scanning every face. Another sat on a bench, hands folded tight. A ring of the phone might bring news – good or bad. Silence stretched, then snapped when a voice finally spoke.

A girl aged sixteen has been unaccounted for after heading to school that Friday. Her uncle shared details with Reportersroom, saying she never made it back home.

“She left around 7am and we haven’t seen her since then,” he said. “We don’t know if she was kidnapped or if she escaped somewhere. The whole family is worried.”

After the incident, classes stopped for a time in several regions – Oriire, Surulere, Oyo East, and Olorunsogo – as school officials stepped in. Schools shut down while authorities assessed what had happened nearby.

Pain gripped officials’ voices as they spoke of the event, unsettling even more so because trust has been fading in remote areas where protection feels like a distant memory.

Later came word from the Oyo State Police Command: both the assistant headmaster and the rider on the bike were dead. At that point, they said nothing about any student being killed. Officials had not listed a single pupil among the dead when this update went out.

A fresh assault on a school unfolded in Borno State early Friday when armed men invaded an institution close to the Sambisa Forest perimeter, seizing multiple students. Though details remain sparse, reports confirm that attackers carried out the raid at dawn, pulling children from classrooms before vanishing into nearby bushland. Locals say gunfire echoed for nearly thirty minutes as panicked families rushed toward the scene. Authorities have yet to identify the group responsible, but suspicion centers on factions operating within the forest’s dense terrain. The incident mirrors past patterns of abduction seen across the region, where schools often become targets amid ongoing unrest.

Out of the blue, news came through Abdullahi Askira – Deputy Speaker at Borno’s assembly – about something happening, yet clear facts didn’t show up. Details stayed thin, hanging there like smoke.

Fleeing into thick brush, several students escaped when the assault began. Some were led off quietly by armed men who met no opposition.

Fresh trouble in Oyo and Borneo has sparked worry over school safety in Nigeria. Rural areas feel the strain most – guards are few, risks grow. With little protection on site, danger finds its way into classrooms too easily.

Families found Friday unlike any ordinary letdown. This time, it stuck – etched into memory without warning.