Kidnapping: Make Oriire rescue the standard, not the exception, ADC tells Tinubu

By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, on Friday urged President Bola Tinubu to make the successful rescue of abducted pupils and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State the national benchmark for fighting kidnapping, insisting that every Nigerian held captive, regardless of where they live, deserves the same urgency and determination from the Federal Government.

The opposition party said the rescue had given hope to many Nigerians but also left grieving families with an unavoidable question: if the government could free the Oriire victims without yielding to kidnappers’ demands, why should families in Kwara, Borno, and other states still be waiting for the same hope?

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC welcomed the rescue operation but urged the Tinubu administration to extend the same resolve nationwide.

Abdullahi was reacting to the president’s remarks on Thursday while receiving traditional rulers from Oyo State, led by the Olubadan of Ibadanland, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where Tinubu disclosed that his administration rejected negotiations with the kidnappers and instead relied on security operations, including targeting the kidnappers’ families.

“The rescue in Oriire should not stand as an exceptional story that the government recounts with pride. It should be the standard by which every response to kidnapping is measured,” the ADC said.

The party said every life rescued from kidnappers was a victory for the country and every reunited family a source of relief but stressed that the true measure of effective governance was whether such outcomes became routine rather than exceptional.

“Those families ask for no special treatment. They ask only for equal humanity and equal citizenship,” Abdullahi added.

The ADC said hundreds of families in Kwara State still wake each day uncertain whether abducted relatives are alive, while communities in Borno, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Benue, and other parts of the country continue to wait for loved ones who have remained in captivity.

“If the Federal Government has the intelligence network, the operational capacity, and the political resolve to bring the victims in Oriire home without yielding to the demands of kidnappers, why has the government not applied the same strategy to rescue other victims who have fallen victims much longer and have continued to languish in kidnappers’ dens till today?” the party asked.

The party argued that the president’s account of the Oriire operation demonstrated that the government possessed the capability to confront kidnappers decisively and should apply that determination wherever Nigerians are abducted, irrespective of geography or ethnicity.

According to the ADC, “The president told the kidnappers in Oriire, ‘No deal.’ He must demonstrate equal resolve and send an equally unmistakable message and give real hope to families still waiting for a son, daughter, husband, wife, or parent that the government has not forgotten them.”

The opposition party maintained that the true test of any administration was not success in a single operation but its ability to build a system that prevents kidnappings and assures citizens that rescue efforts will not depend on where an abduction occurs.

It urged the Federal Government to deploy the same intelligence, surveillance, and operational determination that secured the Oriire rescue in every state where Nigerians remain in captivity.

“No family should have to wonder whether the urgency of government depends on where tragedy happens,” the ADC said.