By Taiwo Scholarstica
The rescued principal of Community High School in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, Mrs. Rachael Alamu, has opened up about the horrific tactics used by their captors.
The Principal revealed that the terrorists deliberately executed two teachers to pressure the government into meeting their demands.
Mrs. Alamu disclosed that the kidnappers capitalized on the global attention surrounding the case, calculating that the cold-blooded killings would force the state’s hand.
The two educators killed during the ordeal were the school’s Mathematics teacher, Mr. Michael Oyedokun, who was brutally beheaded inside the kidnappers’ camp, and Mr. Esiyan Adegboye, 49, who was shot dead during the initial assault on the school and subsequently buried in Ogbomoso on May 22.
Narrating the traumatic experience to journalists on Monday at the Government House in Ibadan, shortly after Governor Seyi Makinde received the survivors, Mrs. Alamu explained that the executions were a calculated strategy of psychological warfare.
She recalled that while they clung to the hope that everyone would make it out alive, the terrorists killed Mr. Oyedokun on the second day of their abduction, followed by the murder of Mr. Adegboye on the first Sunday of June.
According to the principal, the captors took their lives purposefully because they believed it would compel the government to provide whatever they wanted, knowing full well that the entire world was closely monitoring the situation.
Reflecting on the rest of their 56-day ordeal, Mrs. Alamu described the immense psychological and physical strain of keeping the children alive in the wilderness.
The victims spent the majority of their captivity exposed to the elements inside the forest, enduring harsh sun and heavy rains without shelter.
While she was not physically assaulted herself, she revealed that the kidnappers frequently beat the younger pupils whenever they cried or made noise out of fear.
The rescued pupils and teachers, who have since been handed over to the Oyo State Government by federal authorities, spent the days following their release receiving intensive medical care and psychosocial support at the Military Hospital in Ibadan.
Their recovery has attracted visits from key state figures, including Governor Makinde and the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, as the survivors begin the long process of healing from what Mrs. Alamu described as permanent emotional scars.