…Want Military Base In Orire
The House of Representatives on Tuesday called on the Federal Government and all security agencies to ensure a swift and safe return of all the abducted children and teachers of Orire Local Government Area in Oyo State.
The decision followed the adoption of a motion brought by Hon. Olamijuwonlo Alao-Akala (APC, Oyo) at plenary.
“We call on the Federal Government and all security agencies to bring our remaining sons, daughters, and teachers home alive without further delay, for every hour lost is an hour in which we risk losing them forever, and that risk now outweighs every other consideration before us.
“In addition to the 1,000 forest guards already approved, a permanent military forward operating base, as acknowledged by Mr President be established at Orire Local Government Area to plant a sustained and dominating security presence across the Old Oyo National Park and its environs, so that this strategic frontier around the border corridors ceases to be a safe-haven for killers and a passage of terror into the South-West.”
Also, in adopting the motion, the House resolved that the National Assembly and the Executive Arm must, without further excuse or delay, commence full implementation of this House’s adopted resolution on a decentralised and regional security architecture, the creation of state police, Local Government policing units, decentralised courts, and an integrated national intelligence and surveillance network, for the people have waited long enough, and every further postponement is paid for in the blood of innocents, and brings the nation closer to being overrun”.
Presenting the motion, Hon. Alao-Akala said he noted with a heavy and grieving heart the unrelenting siege upon the people of Ogbomoso and Orire local government areas of Oyo State.
He said the siege began with the brazen attack on the Old Oyo National Park.
“In January 2025, it reached its most harrowing depths on the morning of 16th May 2025, when armed bandits descended upon Baptist Nursery and Primary School (Yawota), Community Grammar School (Esiele), and L.A. Primary School, dragging more than thirty children and their teachers into the forest in broad daylight, while terrified parents could only watch and weep.
The lawmaker said he was deeply disturbed by the barbaric execution of Mr Michael Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher, who was beheaded by his abductors, a savage act that has shocked the conscience of our nation and demands an immediate and decisive response from every arm of government.
He lamented that, “As we sit in the comfort of this Chamber, mothers in Orire are sleepless, fathers are broken, and children still in the hands of their captors are crying out for a rescue that has not yet come, and that every passing hour of their captivity is an hour of unbearable agony for families who do not know whether their loved ones are alive or dead.
“Alarmed that the Old Oyo National Park and its surrounding forests are a vast, ungoverned wilderness straddling the border with Kwara state and opening onto international routes, a hidden highway through which these killers move freely, making the Orire axis the gateway through which terror is now creeping into the heart of the South-West.”
On adopting the motion, the House mandated its committees on defence, interior, police affairs, and National Security, to jointly monitor the implementation of the resolution and report in 30days.
