Parents of abducted Borno pupils feel abandoned after Oyo rescue

Families of pupils abducted from Mussa school in Borno have appealed to the government to show the same urgency used in the Oyo rescue operation.

Families of pupils abducted from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State have appealed to the federal government to intensify efforts to rescue their children, saying they feel abandoned two months after the incident. Their appeal comes barely 48 hours after security forces rescued teachers and pupils abducted from three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The abductions in both Borno and Oyo occurred on May 15, 2026. More than 40 pupils and teachers were kidnapped from the Mussa school, including children as young as two years old. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the families said they have received no contact or information about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, chairman of the parents’ committee, Mr Ishaku Suya, said the community has remained in mourning and anxiety since the abduction. He said the only government official who visited the families was the Borno State Commissioner for Education, who assured them that efforts were being made to rescue the victims. “Since then, we have not heard anything again. We were happy to hear that the Oyo pupils and teachers were rescued, but our own children have been forgotten,” he said. Suya appealed to the federal government to deploy the same commitment shown in the Oyo rescue operation to secure the release of the abducted Borno pupils. “We are Nigerians too. We are asking the government to show the same commitment and urgency in rescuing our children,” he said.

One of the parents, Sale Buba, said the uncertainty over the fate of the children has left families traumatised. “We do not know where our children are or the condition they are in. While efforts were made to rescue the Oyo victims, nobody seems to be talking about ours,” he said. Another parent, Ishaku Joe, said the silence surrounding the Borno abduction had deepened the pain of the affected families. “We don’t know whether they are alive, whether they are eating or what they are going through in the bush. We feel neglected,” she said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of youths and students staged a peaceful demonstration in Maiduguri to protest insecurity and demand the rescue of the abducted pupils. Carrying placards with various inscriptions, the protesters urged the federal government to deploy all available resources to rescue children abducted from Mussa, Lassa and other communities. Addressing the protesters at the Post Office area of Maiduguri, the convener, Suleiman Muhammed, commended the rescue of the Oyo pupils and teachers but urged the government to replicate the same efforts in Borno. “We believe the government will not discriminate against any part of the country. The same determination used in Oyo should be applied to rescuing children still in captivity in Borno,” he said.

Another protester, Muhammed Mustapha, questioned why the Borno victims had received far less attention despite being abducted on the same day as the Oyo pupils. “These children were kidnapped on the same day, yet nobody is talking about those taken from Mussa or the recent Lassa school abduction. We deserve an explanation,” he said.

The contrast could not be starker. In Oyo, a coordinated military operation secured the release of 44 hostages. In Borno, more than 40 pupils remain in captivity with no end in sight. The government’s response to the two abductions has been uneven, and the parents of the Borno victims are right to feel abandoned.

This echoes the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, when the government’s response was widely criticised for being slow and ineffective. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: parents waiting, children missing, and a government that seemed to prioritise some victims over others.

The winners: none. The losers: the families of the abducted Borno pupils, who continue to wait; the children themselves, who remain in captivity; and the Nigerian government, which has once again been accused of treating some citizens as more equal than others.

Bottom Line: 44 hostages were rescued in Oyo. More than 40 pupils remain missing in Borno. The parents are asking: why the difference? That is a question the government must answer.