The Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed, on Sunday, June 14, 2026, paid a high-profile sympathy and solidarity visit to Oyo State, the Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, at his private residence in the Ikolaba area of Ibadan, following the prolonged captivity of pupils and teachers abducted from the Oriire Local Government Area.
Governor Mohammed, who was accompanied by national leaders of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM)—including the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, and its Bauchi State governorship candidate, Dr. Yakubu Adamu—used the visit to commiserate with the government and people of Oyo State over the tragic May 15 school raid. Terrorists had stormed Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, alongside Community Grammar School and L.A. Primary School in Esiele, brutally killing a schoolteacher and marching over 45 pupils and educators into the forest.
Speaking with journalists immediately after a closed-door meeting with his host, Governor Mohammed issued a blunt assessment of Nigeria’s current security landscape, framing the rampant lapses across the country as a direct byproduct of systemic state failures.
“The security situation we are seeing across the country is a clear manifestation of poor governance, poverty, and the crushing challenges of daily life,” the Bauchi Governor stated. “The nation’s security architecture requires deep scrutiny to birth greater commitment and far better synergy among security operatives, as well as between the security agencies and the citizens themselves.”
Mohammed noted that the protracted ordeal of the Oriire hostages has generated profound anxiety across the entire country. However, he commended Governor Makinde’s relentless executive interventions and expressed absolute confidence in the Oyo Governor’s capacity to eventually secure the safe extraction of the victims.
“I am here with our leaders from the Allied Peoples Movement to commiserate with our presidential candidate and the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, over this ordeal,” Mohammed said. “It has been a lingering issue for some time, and we are truly sharing in the grief. We are here to encourage him that what he is doing to ensure their release is being noticed by the whole nation.”
Drawing from successful community-policing models implemented in Bauchi State, Governor Mohammed urged local residents in Oyo State to take active responsibility for the safety of their communities. He warned citizens against acting as informants or collaborating with criminal syndicates, urging complete vigilance as security forces scale up operations.
“Beyond government action, the citizenry must sit up and ensure they take their destinies into their own hands,” he warned. “People must take responsibility to ensure they do not become informants or collaborate with criminal elements. Furthermore, they must ensure they elect good leaders. We cannot exonerate ourselves at any level of leadership—whether at the sub-national, national, or local government level. In the next election cycle, people must take their destinies into their own hands.”
Beyond the security deliberations, the high-level meeting also served a political purpose, providing an avenue for the Bauchi delegation to formally congratulate Governor Makinde on his recent emergence as the APM’s presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections. Mohammed described Makinde as a “jolly good friend, a young man with energy, determination, and drive, who can do a lot to change the trajectory of leadership and good governance in Nigeria.”
Top officials of the Oyo State Government joined Governor Makinde in receiving the northern delegation, including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Olanike Adeyemo; the Commissioner for Public Works and Transport, Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola; and the Senior Executive Assistant on General Duties, Bayo Lawal.
The solidarity visit comes amid escalating local tension, following a massive public protest by civil society groups in Ibadan and an ongoing indefinite strike action by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) over the continuous, unresolved captivity of their colleagues in the Ogbomoso axis.
