Middle Belt Forum Tackles FG On Non Rescue Of Abducted Students, Teachers In The North

By Akinwale Kasali 

“Use the same energy and commitment you deployed in Oyo to rescue the equally abducted children and teachers in the North” – MBF to FG

Following the successful  rescue of abducted Students and Teachers of Oriire area,  Oyo State, the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has called on the Federal Government to fulfill its constitutional responsibility by, also, intensifying  operations for all citizens still held by terrorists in the Northern part of the country to regain their freedom.

The MBF said that the abducted persons in the North include  School Children of Mussa, Lassa, Shikarkir, Ariko, Awon and every other forgotten community across Nigeria.

Luka Binniyat, spokesman of the Middle Belt Forum, in a statement in Kaduna on Wednesday, said the  rescue of the Oyo victims has demonstrated that determined action can produce results. 

He urged the FG to use the same energy, commitment in successfully securing the release of the Oriire Students and Teachers should be extended to every Nigerian still in captivity.

“The Middle Belt Forum also urges the Nigerian Union of Teachers to demonstrate that its concern for the safety of teachers and schoolchildren is national in scope by extending the same solidarity to the victims in Southern Borno. 

“If the union truly believes that every Nigerian teacher and every Nigerian child deserves equal protection, then it must speak with the same outrage and conviction on behalf of these forgotten pupils”, the statement stated.

The Forum  appealed to civil society organisations, human rights groups, religious leaders, the media, development partners and the international community not to allow the innocent victims to disappear from public consciousness, saying that every Nigerian child held hostage by enemies of society deserves to be remembered, and that every hostage deserves hope and every family deserves justice.

The Forum stated that it commends the Federal Government, the security agencies and all those who played a role in the successful rescue of the schoolchildren and teachers abducted in Oyo State on May 15, 2026, adding that every Nigerian, regardless of ethnicity, religion or location, deserves equal protection under the Constitution.

According to the statement: “Sadly, on the very same day terrorists abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State, Boko Haram terrorists attacked Government Day Secondary School, Mussa, in Askira/Uba Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State.

“The school complex included a secondary school, a primary school and a nursery school. Forty-two innocent children were abducted, including toddlers as young as two years old. What has followed since then is deeply disturbing.

“While the entire nation rightly mobilised in support of the Oyo victims, the children of Mussa have suffered in almost complete silence. There has been little visible concern from the Borno State Government, the Federal Government, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), civil society organisations and many human rights groups. 

“The national media, which devoted extensive attention to the Oyo tragedy, has remained largely silent on the fate of these innocent children.”

Binniyat further explained that the forum found the painful silence difficult to understand and impossible to justify, lamenting that on June 29, 2026, armed terrorists attacked Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, also in Askira/Uba LGA while students were sitting for their secondary school examinations. Thirty-six students (25 girls and 11 boys) and one staff member were abducted. 

It added that at least one teacher was killed during the attack, stressing that since the first reports of that “horrific incident, Binniyat said that nothing has been said about the incident. 

He added that it seems   that the nation appears to have moved on, leaving the victims and their grieving families to suffer alone.

 “It is as if these children have been forgotten simply because they come from what appears to be a neglected part of Nigeria.

“This painful pattern did not begin this year. In August 2025, terrorists invaded Shikarkir in Chibok LGA in Southern Borno and abducted seven boys and girls. To this day, those children remain in captivity”.

The statement added that, “On April 6, 2026, during Easter Sunday worship, armed Fulani bandits attacked three churches in Ariko Village in Kachia LGA in Kaduna State. Seven innocent worshippers were murdered and 37 people, mostly women and children, were abducted. Among those taken away was an elderly blind man.

“One of the kidnapped women even gave birth while in captivity. A few are said to have now died due to the harsh, brutal conditions of their captivity.”

It explained that barely two weeks later, on April 20, 2026, Awon community in Kachia Local Government Area was attacked, killing two people and abducting 11 others, pointing out that the victims remain in captivity while their families continue to “endure unimaginable pain with little reassurance from those entrusted with protecting them.

Binniyat added that what makes this even more painful is that while innocent citizens remain abandoned in the hands of terrorists, enormous public resources continue to be devoted to programmes for so-called repentant Boko Haram members in Borno State and various rehabilitation initiatives for repentant bandits in Kaduna State,” the statement lamented.

It, therefore, urged the FG to intensify efforts in also securing the release the school children and their teachers.