Governor Seyi Makinde Monday said about 9 individuals of interest have been arrested by security operatives allegedly over the anductions on three schools at Esinele community of Oriire Local Government Area, Oyo state.
The Governor gave this hint while addressing newsmen after presiding over a security review of the state with his security advisers and service commanders.
Makinde stated out that six of the arrested individuals were suspected to be informants or people running logistics for the terrorists, while 3 others were individuals of interest.
Also, he said that one of the seven teachers abducted was killed on Sunday morning by the gunmen and that a yet-to-be-ascertained number of pupils/ students were kidnapped in Ahoro Esinele community, Oriire local government area of Oyo state, during the Friday attack.
“Ffrom the information available from the Commissioner of Police, about six individuals have been arrested within the locality. Some of them, we believe, are perhaps informants or people running logistics for the terrorists.
“Also, three individuals of interest have been arrested by another security outfit within the state.
“We just finished a review of the security situation in the local government area where the abduction of some teachers and schoolchildren took place.
“Let me appeal to the families that are involved that their government is working round the clock to ensure that we tackle this challenge. And, for our troops and our service commanders, we have a few wounded soldiers and hunters and other operatives and they are recovering.
“The government will continue to take responsibility for ensuring that they fully recover and look after their medical bills. What we know right now is that seven teachers in all were abducted.
“And, unfortunately, we got a video this morning that one of the teachers, I understand the Maths teacher, was killed by the terrorists this morning. Of course, our prayers are with the family.
“We have decided that we will adopt not just the kinetic approach. But there have been a lot of threats and tempers have been rising, especially from a lot of our leaders, elders, and religious leaders. We have heard and seen your reactions, and, I want to say that we are not taking this lightly.
“I want to appeal to everybody; citizens, residents, particularly those in Oriire Local Government and the rest of Oyo state that we are doing everything within our power to ensure that we resolve this situation quickly and bring our children back safely. But we must recognise that it is a very difficult and challenging situation,” Makinde stated.
