Oyo School Abduction: Nine Killed During Operation to Rescue Victims, DSS Reveals

Nine people, including four civilians and five security personnel, were killed during a security operation to rescue victims abducted by suspected members of an international terrorist group in Oyo State, the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Tosin Ajayi, has disclosed.

Ajayi made the disclosure in an interview published by Premium Times while providing details of the operation and the security challenges encountered during the rescue mission.

According to the DSS boss, security operatives launched an immediate pursuit after receiving credible intelligence about the abduction.

He said a vigilante member and a police officer were killed during the initial pursuit, while additional casualties occurred when security forces later raided the kidnappers’ hideout.

“Immediately after the incident happened, based on credible intelligence, troops chased them immediately, and sadly, a vigilante and a policeman were killed. During the second raid, more were killed, making a total of nine fatalities, four civilians and five security personnel,” Ajayi said.

The DSS director-general described the operation as particularly complex because the abducted victims included a two-and-a-half-year-old child, who would have been unable to escape quickly during a forceful assault on the location.

“It was a complex operation involving a two-and-a-half-year-old infant who could not run much if we invaded the place,” he explained.

Ajayi also criticised the spread of false information on social media during the rescue operation, saying the security agencies had to contend with misleading content while efforts to rescue the victims were ongoing.

According to him, videos circulated online and presented as footage from the Oyo incident were actually old recordings from another country.

“As expected, the rescue operation attracted a lot of social media disinformation. You have to sieve the information there,” he said.

He further alleged that some of the videos were manipulated or falsely presented as current footage from Nigeria.

“While that incident lasted, they were posting deepfake videos of children beaten with lacerations on their bodies. They were actually footage from a particular country on witchcraft-related incidents passed off as real-time crude events here,” Ajayi said.

The DSS chief urged journalists and media organisations to intensify fact-checking during sensitive security operations and distinguish verified information from unconfirmed claims circulating online.

He said some of the rescued victims had described being treated well by their captors, stressing the importance of establishing facts rather than relying on viral social media narratives.

“One of the things I’d like you to do in the media is fact-finding and separating facts from fiction,” Ajayi said.

Ajayi also disclosed that the group behind the abduction was an international terrorist organisation with links to Al-Qaeda.

He said the DSS had previously arrested the group’s alleged leaders and that their arrests had helped prevent further high-profile attacks.

According to him, the suspects were linked to the Abuja-Kaduna train attack and were allegedly planning additional abductions targeting foreigners, students, women and children.

“Citizens ought to know that the incarcerated leaders of the kidnap group who were requested in exchange for the victims were arrested last year by the Service; their arrest helped to prevent high-profile attacks,” Ajayi said.

He added that the suspects were:

“found complicit in the Abuja/Kaduna train attack and were planning more kidnappings of foreigners, students, women and their children on a large scale.”

The DSS director-general said the group was allegedly seeking recognition as a state and demanding freedom to practise its religion within a designated territory.

He said the arrest of its leaders was therefore part of a broader proactive security strategy to prevent further attacks.

Ajayi disclosed that the alleged kingpins and three other collaborators had been sentenced to life imprisonment, although the DSS intends to pursue stiffer punishment.

“The kingpins are the ones now sentenced to life imprisonment. The three other collaborators earned life imprisonment, and the Service will push for a stiffer penalty,” he said.

The Oyo abduction occurred on May 15, 2026, when armed men reportedly attacked three schools in Oriire Local Government Area and abducted pupils and teachers.

Security agencies subsequently launched a joint operation to locate the victims and apprehend the abductors.

The latest disclosure by the DSS provides further details of the operation, including the casualties suffered by security personnel and civilians during efforts to secure the victims’ release.