On Tuesday, 16th of June, 2026, Martins Vincent Otse popularly known as VDM led a Group of protesters to Ibadan the Oyo state Capital. The protest led by VDM was motivated by the abduction of school Pupils and Teachers at Oriire Local Government of Oyo state.
I have seen a video of Governor Seyi Makinde while he was addressing VDM and other protesters in his private residence at Ikolaba. I have also listened carefully to the statements made by Governor Seyi Makinde when the protesters visited him at his private residence. I wonder how the protesters got to know that he was in his private residence and how they got to know the address of Governor Seyi Makinde’s private residence.
Equally, I have seen the video of the attack against VDM and the protesters somewhere in Ibadan. You will recall that a proup of protesters under the auspices of the ‘Take it back Movement‘ were equally attacked a couple of weeks ago while they were protesting on the streets of Ibadan.
An Aide of Governor Seyi Makinde was alleged to have led those who attacked the protesters on that occasion, but the young man came out to deny the allegations a few days later. Now, I said I have seen the videos of the protest led by VDM and I have also listened to Governor Seyi Makinde’s address to the protesters.
Let us start from there. Like I said, I am curious as to why Governor Seyi Makinde would choose to address protesters at his private residence but that is just by the way. Governor Makinde has been consistently saying that he is not in control of the security architecture of Oyo state for some time now and he also alluded to such sentiments yesterday.
However, I was surprised to hear him telling the protesters, in the same vein, that they have lost men, including a senior ranking Military personnel in the attempts to rescue the abducted victims. Let me quote the Governor verbatim. He said, “we have lost men. Even soldiers and officers and I can confirm to you that a lieutenant in the Nigerian Army was killed a few days ago “.
The above statement did not portray a Governor who is not in charge of security architecture in his state. To the contrary, that statement portrays a Governor who is fully in-charge, well briefed about the efforts by all security agencies, the Military inclusive and I think this should put an end to all the flimsy excuses of the past and the present by Governor Seyi Makinde and his followers.
The fact that the Commissioner of Police would have to get clearance from Abuja on certain instructions given to him by a Governor, does not suggest that the Governor is not in control of the Police. Let me ask Governor Makinde, when he decided that Auxiliary’s cup was full and the fellow was to be arrested, on whose order was the fellow arrested, first, by the DSS and later by the Police?
Did the DSS and the Police waited for a clearance from Abuja before Auxiliary was arrested and arraigned at the time? No matter how hard Governor Seyi Makinde tried to be in his comments yesterday, he still betrayed the attempts to pass the bulk and excuse himself for certain failures.
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Now, when Governor Seyi Makinde said that all necessary measures were been taken in collaboration with security agencies to ensure a successful rescue operation, what did he mean by that? This statement contradicted his earlier position that he could not control the security agencies.
How do you successfully collaborate with those you claimed you have no control over?
I am surprised that Governor Seyi Makinde chose to deliver a proper message to the wrong audience. What he told VDM and his group on Tuesday is exactly what he should have told the people of Oriire Local Government when he visited the place a couple of weeks ago, instead of the hopeless picture he presented before the Oriire Community.
I was surprised to see that Governor Seyi Makinde still managed to play to the gallery while addressing the protesters. He highlighted the fact that it is the first time Kidnappers would be abducting Pupils of Nursery and primary school in Nigeria. I think he was trying to underline the fact that the abducted Pupils were very young and he emphasized this fact by saying that the Pupils could not even run.
I wonder what he was trying to prove with this particular point. Even if someone could outrun a gazelle, could their ability to run actually prevent anyone from being kidnapped by this daredevil but that is just the lighter part.
The declaration that he was ready to risk his own life to rescue the abducted victims is the height of it. I don’t know how the Governor would expect anyone to take him seriously when he was making such an empty promise. At any rate, no one asks him to risk his life because he doesn’t need to put his life on the line before the right things are done.
Now, to the alleged attack of the protesters by suspected thugs, I want to call on Governor Seyi Makinde to direct security agencies to fish out those criminals who attacked the protesters now that he has been collaborating effectively with security agencies. He should also direct security agencies to fish out those who attacked the ‘Take it back Movement ‘ when they were staging a peaceful protest a couple of weeks ago.
From the video I saw, those who were throwing bottles, stones and other dangerous objects at VDM and his followers didn’t appear like strangers from other states. To make matters worse, I have seen videos of some thugs shooting at the protesters!
Who could these criminals be? What was their motivation? Were they sent against the protesters or what? If they were, by who? Or, is the attack orchestrated to achieve a premeditated trajectory?
Governor Seyi Makinde and the security agencies must provide us with answers to these very important questions. We don’t want this to go down like that of the Take it back Movement. I am saying this because I came across a video by VDM where he was saying some people were threatening to send thugs to attack him and his group in Ibadan. It is therefore very important to identify and arrest the criminals who attacked the group of peaceful protesters in Ibadan on Tuesday. It is also important to identify and arrest those who attacked and inflicted wounds on the Take it back Movement a couple of weeks ago when they were protesting peacefully.
It is not good enough for the Governor to give audience to protesters and when they left to continue their peaceful protests, they were attacked and wounded. It becomes more worrisome, when those who were attacked began to mention the names of Aides of the Governor as the alleged masterminds of such attacks.
I will also like to respond to a comment by Governor Seyi Makinde when he was addressing VDM and the protesters. The Governor, technically reinforced exactly what Debo Ogundoyin said not long ago.
He also confirmed, that his Government have been talking with the Kidnappers. I think what he was trying to say in this context is that, the kidnappers had communicated their demands to government. He however, just like Debo Ogundoyin, ruled out negotiations, because, according to him, this will continue to strengthen the Kidnappers.
Governor Makinde had said that all options are being considered for the rescue of the abducted victims but the idea that negotiations is not an option because it emboldens the Kidnappers is, for me, insensitive. If we lack the capacity to prevent this things from happening and a rescue operation is becoming more dangerous because of the fear of the collateral damages it might incur, then, who says we shouldn’t negotiate?
It is easy for Governor Seyi Makinde to emerge from his luxurious, heavily furnished, air conditioned mansion to address protesters and talked about his willingness to sacrifice himself. Assuming he was sincere about the declaration that he was ready to sacrifice himself, that was a choice. His choice.
The abducted victims didn’t make a choice to sacrifice themselves. In fact, they were presented with none. It was the failures of Government that brought the disaster on them. I am so glad that Governor Seyi Makinde talked about the fact that those abducted children are so young, frail and not independent.
What will such young children know about sacrifice? Governor Makinde said if it got to a point where certain people has to be sacrificed, including himself, they will do it. He also said something about minimum collateral damages. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of contradictions in the address of Governor Seyi Makinde.
He was blowing hot and cold, going forward and backward from the same spot but I am very uncomfortable with the references to ” certain people being sacrificed” and ” collateral damages” and most especially, the abducted victims should have nothing to do with the kind of ‘ sacrifice ‘ Governor Makinde was talking about.
More so, those are not words meant for the circumstances under which Governor Seyi Makinde addressed VDM and the protesters. I think Governor Makinde should also know when to be restraint and economical with words. Although, he tried so much, but the microphone still betrayed him yesterday.
Sola Abegunde.
