Oyo State Will Never Be Chibok – Seyi Makinde

Seyi Makinde

Governor Seyi Makinde has declared that Oyo State will never be Chibok. This comes after social media activist VeryDarkMan (VDM) led a protest over rising insecurity and kidnappings in the state.

Vowing that the pupils and teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government Area will be rescued safely, Makinde insisted that his administration will do everything possible to ensure that the abducted children did not suffer the fate of the Chibok schoolgirls.

He concluded by acknowledging the dangers surrounding the rescue operation, stressing that every effort is being made to avoid further casualties.

His words, “Let me make it very, very clear: Oyo State is not Chibok and we will not be Chibok. We have lost men, even soldiers and officers, and I can confirm to you that a lieutenant in the Nigerian Army was killed a few days ago.

If you ask me, can I sacrifice myself for those children to come out? I will do it. I have lived a good life, I’m almost 60 and it doesn’t matter. Our children will never be in the same situation as Chibok children.

We’ve lost a teacher already. If we can avoid losing more, we will avoid losing more, but if we get to the point that certain people have to be sacrificed, including myself, we will do it.

I will tell the truth and nothing but the truth. If I am not in government, I will be you; I’ll be protesting with you.

I do not have anything against what you are doing. To have a society where leaders are accountable and inclusive sometimes requires agitation, sometimes it requires protest, and sometimes it requires people getting up from their comfort zones to do something like this.

As governor, I can call the Commissioner of Police and we can meet, but I cannot deploy him. If I say go to a particular place, he will need approval from the Inspector-General of Police. The same thing applies to the military.

When I came in, security was one of the cardinal principles of this administration. That is why we set up Amotekun. Amotekun has not been armed adequately, but that is our reality.

I am also distressed because I have children of my own. I am distressed about what has happened to our children. It has been one month and one day already.

Because of the nature of the security operation involved, I cannot divulge a lot of information, but I can tell you that there is no information that any of those children or their teachers have died.

This is the first time anywhere in Nigeria that people have kidnapped nursery and primary school children. These are children that cannot even run or do anything for themselves. So the operation to rescue them is a special type of operation if we do not want to lose any of those children.

Nigeria does not deserve this. In an atmosphere of insecurity, hardly can you do anything. Schools have been shut, farmers have left their farms, and we are talking about food security.

We have been monitoring you since you started this morning. You have not destroyed anything. You have gone about the protest in a civilised manner. Please let us maintain it that way.”

WOW.