ON Friday, July 10, something happened that made millions of Nigerians exhale. After 56 grueling days in the forests of the Old Oyo National Park, all 44 pupils, students and teachers abducted from three schools in Oriire local government area of Oyo State walked back into freedom. Not one hostage was left behind. No ransom was paid. No prisoner swap was done. The gunmen who thought they could hold a nation to ransom got soldiers, bullets and handcuffs instead.
Our military and security agencies have been the whipping boys of public commentary for years, and I have thrown a few lashes myself on this page. But today, I chose to do something different. Today, I chose to celebrate them.
Don’t get me wrong. Insecurity is still strangulating Nigerians. Many of our people still cannot travel on the highway without their hearts in their mouths, and villagers in parts of this country still sleep with one eye open for fear of marauding gunmen. That fear is real and I will not insult anybody by pretending it has vanished.
We also know there are deviant elements within the services, the bad eggs who sell arms and collude with the same terrorists their colleagues are dying to fight. They exist, and they must be fished out and punished. But it would be the height of ingratitude to allow the sins of a few to bury the sacrifice of the many honest men and women working round the clock to keep us safe. Today belongs to them.
Let us look at the numbers, because numbers do not clap for anybody. According to the operational briefings released by the Defence Headquarters, our troops rescued 1,764 kidnapped victims in the first six months of 2026 alone. That is 813 hostages in the first quarter and 951 in the second quarter. Each of those 1,764 people is a mother, a child, a breadwinner, a student who has been returned to a family that had been living in torment. Behind every one of those figures is a household that can breathe again.
In the same period, troops arrested 2,443 terrorist and criminal suspects, while hundreds of terrorists, bandits and armed criminals were neutralized across the various theatres of operation. The Joint Task Force in the Northeast, under Operation Hadin Kai, reported that about 1,000 terrorist elements, including 57 high-profile commanders, were eliminated in the first quarter alone.
In the second quarter, 662 terrorists and bandits met their waterloo nationwide. And just this month, a two-day offensive in the Gummi district of Zamfara State reportedly sent more than 300 bandits to their maker. For men who once attempted to bring down an alpha jet and attacked the Nigerian Defence Academy itself, the tide is clearly turning against them.
Then there are the operations that deserve to be taught in staff colleges. In May, troops operating in the Northeast stormed the Mandara Mountains in Borno State and rescued 360 civilians, almost all of them women and children, from the grip of terrorists. Earlier in the year, a major sweep in the Lake Chad Basin area freed over 200 women and children who were being used as forced labour on illegal farming enclaves run by insurgents. Human beings, fellow Nigerians, being farmed like property in 2026. That is the evil our troops are contending with in those forests while some of us are busy dispensing armchair strategy on social media.
But it is the Oyo rescue that stands out for me, and for good reason. Mass school abductions of the Chibok variety have historically been a northern nightmare. So when bandits in military camouflage rode motorcycles into three schools in Oriire on May 15 and marched children and their teachers into the forest, it was a chilling signal that the merchants of terror were expanding their franchise southwards. The nation held its breath for 56 days.
The response was everything we have been begging for on this page for years. The Army, Navy Special Forces including the Special Boat Service, and Air Force Special Forces worked hand in hand with the Police, the DSS, the NIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency. Amotekun Corps, local hunters and vigilantes brought their knowledge of the terrain. President Bola Tinubu convened a high-level security meeting, intelligence was gathered painstakingly, the hideouts were tracked, and the hammer fell.
Eight members of the gang are now cooling off in DSS custody while several of their colleagues did not live to tell the story. This is what synergy looks like. This is what happens when our agencies drop the ego wars and turf battles and face the common enemy. Whoever coordinated this operation should be decorated, and the template should be studied and replicated across all theatres.
I am particularly pleased that the government refused to pay ransom or swap prisoners. The kidnappers had demanded the release of an arrested gang leader facing prosecution and the government said no. Every ransom paid is seed money for the next abduction. It buys more motorcycles, more rifles and more audacity. The only language these criminals must be made to understand is that kidnapping Nigerians is a business that ends in arrest or the grave, not a payday.
There is something else these operations are restoring, and that is the fear factor. There was a time on this page when I lamented that the military had lost its mojo in the sight of the bandits, when criminals had grown so bold they took the fight to the gates of our institutions. When terrorists start losing 300 men in a single two-day operation, when their commanders are being picked off one after the other, the calculation changes. Criminality is a business of risk and reward, and our troops are steadily making the risk unbearable. That psychological shift matters as much as the body count.
Now, let us bow our heads for a moment, because this triumph was written in blood. Joel Adegboye Adesiyan, a 48-year-old teacher, was shot dead while trying to shield his pupils during the raid. Michael Oyedokun, a 57-year-old mathematics teacher and father of two, was brutally killed by the kidnappers shortly after the abduction. These men were not soldiers. They were teachers on civil service salaries who stood between bullets and other people’s children. If that is not heroism, then the word has no meaning. Oyo State and the federal government should immortalise them and take care of the families they left behind. Their children should not have to beg to be educated.
The rescue operation itself reportedly cost the lives of several soldiers. We do not know all their names, and that is part of our national tragedy, because we are quick to name the villains and slow to name the heroes. Those soldiers went into the forest so that other people’s children could come out of it. The least we owe them is that their entitlements are paid promptly and their families are looked after without the usual bureaucratic torture. God forbid that the widow of a fallen soldier should be chasing files in Abuja for two years.
Mind you, celebration is not the same thing as complacency, and the generals know this better than anybody. The parents in Oriire are asking for reinforced security infrastructure in schools before their children return to classes, and they are right to ask. The Safe Schools Initiative should not remain a fine document gathering dust while our schools remain soft targets. State governments should map every vulnerable school and act. Communities must also play their part by volunteering intelligence, because the boys who ride those motorcycles have neighbours who know them.
There is also the small matter of sustaining this momentum. We have seen seasons of impressive military gains before, followed by relapse when attention shifted. The difference this time must be consistency, welfare for the troops, timely equipment and a justice system that actually prosecutes the arrested suspects instead of recycling them back into the forests through the back door. The 2,443 suspects arrested this year must face trial, publicly and speedily. Nigerians want to see kingpins convicted, not just paraded.
For now though, let us give honour to whom honour is due. To the soldiers in the trenches of the Northeast, the pilots flying sorties over Zamfara, the operatives who spent weeks tracking hideouts in Old Oyo forest, the policemen, the DSS, the Amotekun men and the local hunters who guided them, this bloody civilian says thank you. You have reminded us that this country can still protect its own when it puts its mind to it. Keep the boots on their necks until every Nigerian can travel any highway and sleep in any village without fear.
- Nda-Isaiah is a political analyst based in Abuja and can be reached on jonesdryx@gmail.com. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Saturday.