Mrs Rachael Alamu, principal of Community High School in Ahoro-Esiele, has offered a detailed and deeply personal account of her 56 days in captivity following her abduction by gunmen in Oyo State, revealing that intensified military airstrikes on the kidnappers' hideout eventually became a greater source of fear for the captives than the bandits holding them.

Speaking during a thanksgiving service at Antioch Baptist Church in Ogbomoso, held to mark her safe return, Alamu described the seventh week of captivity as the most traumatic stretch of the entire ordeal. She explained that as security forces intensified air operations around the kidnappers' forest hideout, the constant sound of bombardment left the captives in a near-permanent state of dread, uncertain whether they might be struck by a stray missile rather than freed by the very operation meant to save them. According to her account, the captives โ€” sheltered only under makeshift covering of polythene sheeting and grass โ€” spent that week praying not for rescue in the conventional sense, but simply to survive the bombardment itself.

Alamu and the other victims were abducted on May 15, 2026, when gunmen stormed three schools in Oriire Local Government Area โ€” Community High School in Ahoro-Esiele, a primary school in Esiele, and Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota โ€” in an attack that ultimately swept up 39 pupils and seven teachers, 46 victims in total. The assault triggered nationwide outrage and prompted an indefinite strike by teachers across Oyo State, while President Bola Tinubu publicly condemned the attack and pledged a full rescue operation.

The weeks that followed tested both the victims and the nation's patience. In late May, mathematics teacher Michael Oyedokun was killed by his captors in circumstances that sparked widespread condemnation, an act investigators say was intended to deter security operatives closing in on the kidnappers' camp. Throughout the ordeal, Alamu said the captives endured repeated forced treks through forest terrain at night whenever their captors suspected security forces had located their position, journeys that left visible bruises on many of the victims, including the school's youngest pupils.

Despite the trauma, Alamu said her faith carried her through moments of extreme uncertainty, including a point during the final week when a camp commander summoned her in a manner that left her fearing the worst. She has since described praying for two specific outcomes throughout her captivity: that she would return home to find her family, particularly her husband, still alive, and that her own health would hold up under the harsh conditions of forest confinement, where she battled a serious fever in her final days without reliable access to medication.

The 46 victims were ultimately freed in a security operation in early July, following the arrest of eight members of the kidnapping gang, who were subsequently handed over to the Department of State Services. The Nigerian Army's 2 Division, which led the rescue effort, later detailed the operation publicly, while survivors, including Alamu, were formally reunited with Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde at the Governor's Office in Ibadan.

For families of the victims, the outcome remains bittersweet. Relatives of the slain teacher, Michael Oyedokun, have spoken of an empty chair that will remain permanently at their family table, even as they share in the wider relief of seeing dozens of pupils and teachers safely reunited with their communities after nearly two months in the forest. As Oyo State continues to process the aftermath of the abduction, Alamu's testimony has offered one of the most vivid firsthand accounts yet of both the terror endured by the captives and the extraordinary risks security forces took to bring them home.