A teacher freed after 56 days in captivity in Oyo State says his abductors, who claimed to be ISWAP fighters, released the captives themselves before security operatives simply escorted them home.
𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎: 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐔𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 – 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐲𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) July 19, 2026
Credit: X | Nigeria Info FM pic.twitter.com/mj6r3cLoEA
“We Were Released, Not Rescued” – Freed Oyo Teacher Speaks
Zacchaeus Olatunde, one of the teachers abducted from schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, has given a chilling account of his 56 days in captivity, telling Nigeria Info FM in an interview aired Friday that soldiers did not storm any camp to free them — the kidnappers let them go first, The Punch reports.
The captives, he said, were permanently blindfolded and had no idea where they were. “We were saying maybe the government had even forgotten us,” he recalled.
Their captors, who spoke Hausa, Nupe, English and Yoruba, insisted they belonged to the Islamic State West Africa Province. “They said they are not Boko Haram. They said they are ISWAP,” Olatunde said, adding that he was the last person captured and the last released.
Feeding was twice daily — rice, beans, onions, margarine and salt, “we did not taste pepper” — but hygiene was nonexistent. “For the 56 days, we the teachers did not bathe. We did not wash our clothes,” he said. Prayer was initially banned; after a month, it was permitted quietly, without mentioning Jesus.
Release came suddenly when the commander appeared “smiling and laughing” and told them to open their eyes. A broken handcuff key nearly cost Olatunde his hand before it was cut loose with rope. The group trekked for hours, crossed rivers, and initially feared the Hausa-speaking, unmarked buses sent to collect them.
Olatunde, who suffers arthritis, said a drug given by his captors eased his pain, and that he has received no financial support since returning — only asking that his school be assisted.
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