Boko Haram attacked a school in Oyo State last week, killing a teacher and abducting students and some teachers in a raid that security officials now say may point to the group’s push farther south in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Defence Headquarters said the assault happened in south-western Nigeria, an area long seen as far from the insurgency’s main battlefield in the northeast. The attack has left families waiting more than a week for news of the pupils and teachers taken in the raid.
Governor Seyi Makinde said seven teachers and students were abducted, including children aged two to three years old. Oyo State police said the attack happened between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning at Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele, and that the school principal, Rachael Alamu, was among those taken.
Security analyst Audu Bulama Bukarti said the attacker was likely a Boko Haram commander linked to Abubakar Shekau, and traced that reach back years. He said a man called Sadiqu was among seven people Shekau sent from north-east Nigeria to the north-central region in 2014. Bukarti said Sadiqu later established a Boko Haram base in the Alawa forest before moving to the Kainji forest, adding that the route from there could reach the old Oyo State forest. He also said Sadiqu was behind the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack.
The Oyo raid has become part of a wider wave of school kidnappings that have rattled communities across the country. Premium Times said attacks on three schools in Oyo State on 15 May resulted in the kidnapping of about 32 people, while community leaders put the number affected at 46. The outlet said the official tally of those still in captivity stood at 18 pupils, seven secondary school students and seven teachers. It also reported that mathematics teacher Michael Oyedokun had been beheaded and that six suspected informants and logistics suppliers, along with three more persons of interest, had been arrested.
The contradictions in the numbers underline the problem authorities face: officials and community leaders are still giving different counts, even as children remain missing. Bukarti’s warning is starker still. He argued that militants pushed out of the northeast by military pressure may be finding new ground in the forests farther south, turning a school in Oyo into the latest proof that Boko Haram’s reach is not confined to the region where it began.
