How Beans Seller Made N20,000 Daily From Terrorists Days Before Oyo School Abductions–Senator Buhari

The senator representing Oyo North district, Abdulfatai Buhari, has revealed how terrorists carried out surveillance before striking schools and surrounding communities in Oriire Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking during an interview on Arise News Prime Time, the lawmarker explained how the attackers moved between neighbouring communities, targeting students, teachers, and even bystanders.

On May 15, 2026, armed men stormed two rural communities, Yawota and Esiele, in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, abducting students and teachers, forcing them into the bush.

Providing some details about how the attack was carried out, Buhari said, “Look at this school, for example in that Esiele and Yawota. They first went to Yawota and picked nine students.

“From Yawota to Esiele is about five to eight minutes’ drive and then they came to Yawota to pick the remaining students and teachers. One of the teachers was trying to escape through the window; he was shot.”

“Another person, he is not even a teacher, he is just an okada (commercial motorbike) rider. He was dropping somebody from Yawota to Esiele and they thought he was chasing them, he was shot,” he added.

Buhari said the affected schools were in remote rural communities, often made up of only a few classrooms, making them highly vulnerable to attacks.

“Now back to the (Safer) Schools Initiative; in most cases, schools in the rural areas are always about three, four classrooms. It is a very remote area,” he said.

The senator also recounted how unusual business activity in one of the communities may have inadvertently signalled the presence of the attackers before the raid.

“Two days before the strike, there is a woman selling beans and bread. Normally, her take-home is maybe N1,000, N1,200,” he said.

“But for the two days before the strike, she was making N10,000, N15,000, N20,000. She thought there was a market boom, so instead of reporting it, probably to give information, tell the Baale (traditional ruler) or any of the teachers that there are some certain people who come here to buy, she thought maybe it was her business that was booming or probably they were building certain things around that area,” he said.

He said the attackers were later discovered to have been conducting surveillance ahead of the assault.

“Unfortunately, it turned out that those people were doing what they call surveillance, so when they struck two days later, they realised the people buying beans and bread worth N10,000, N15,000, this is their intention. At times, information is also very vital,” Buhari said.