A former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (rtd.), has commended the Department of State Services,DSS, for the intelligence-driven operation that secured the release of 46 pupils and teachers abducted from schools in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, describing intelligence as “the grandfather of most successful military operations.”
The victims — comprising 39 students and seven teachers, including a two-year-old toddler — were seized by gunmen on May 15, 2026, when armed assailants stormed Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele, and two other schools in the Oriire axis of Ogbomoso. They regained freedom after 56 days in captivity, in an operation Nigerian authorities described as intelligence-led and coordinated across multiple security agencies.
In a personally signed statement, Petinrin, a retired four-star general who also served as Chief of the Air Staff, said the DSS’s quiet professionalism throughout the ordeal deserved special recognition, particularly as public credit initially flowed to other actors.
“While the side players were being eulogised and the main DSS actors responsible for the release were being ignored, the DSS kept silent,” he noted.
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He argued that the full picture of how the victims regained freedom only became clear after one of the released captives narrated the sequence of events.
“The Oriire kidnap victims’ release was already being credited to the military until one of the released victims told the true story. They were released by the kidnappers, and no kinetic action was involved in that release.
“The kidnappers even told their victims why they were being released: members of the kidnappers’ families had been arrested and their videos were sent to the kidnappers,” he stated.
According to Petinrin, the DSS’s capacity to identify and detain relatives of the abductors — and to deploy that leverage to compel the release of the victims — was the decisive factor in the operation’s success.
Security sources have confirmed that eight suspects linked to the abduction were arrested during the wider operation, with some taken into DSS custody, while the Federal Government has since filed a 10-count charge against three of the suspects.
The retired defence chief said the discipline shown by the service after the rescue further underscored its professionalism.
“Students of military operations, including its planning and execution, know that intelligence is the grandfather of most successful operations. But it is a fact that is not immediately obvious to many members of the public and even to some that have spent years in the military establishments,” he said.
“That is the way of solid intelligence professionals. They keep mum after doing the job that leads to the success of operations and will not raise a whimper even when the wrong people are being credited for the job. I must say it again: intelligence is the grandfather of military operations,” he declared.
The Oriire abduction is one of the most significant mass school kidnappings recorded in Nigeria’s South-West region, a zone historically considered less exposed to the large-scale school abductions that have plagued the North-West and North-Central states since the 2014 Chibok tragedy. The May 15 raid drew national outrage and reignited debate over the vulnerability of rural schools and the adequacy of Nigeria’s counter-kidnapping architecture.
For 56 days, families and community leaders in Ogbomoso staged vigils and appeals, while the Oyo State Government insisted no ransom was paid — a position the Federal Government has also maintained.
Authorities credited the eventual breakthrough to sustained intelligence work, surveillance of the abductors’ networks, and the targeting of the kidnappers’ family members, a tactic that Petinrin’s statement now confirms was central to the outcome.
The rescue has since prompted renewed calls for the institutionalisation of intelligence-led security responses, improved inter-agency coordination, and the “Safe Schools” initiative aimed at hardening educational facilities across vulnerable communities.
Petinrin’s intervention adds a rare, senior military voice to the growing recognition that the Oriire outcome — achieved without a firefight — may offer a template for how Nigeria confronts the evolving kidnap-for-ransom economy: less through kinetic engagement, and more through the patient, discreet application of human and technical intelligence.
Crediblenewsng.com
