Former Ekiti State Governor and PDP chieftain, Ayodele Fayose, has again trained his sights on Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, insisting that the governor bears direct responsibility for the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in the state and reiterating that he has no intention of walking back his earlier remarks.

Speaking in an interview on Arise Television, Fayose was unsparing in his assessment of Makinde’s handling of the crisis. “I stand by my words. Seyi Makinde was not proactive enough. The abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo is a problem caused by Governor Seyi Makinde. It is the responsibility of the state government to mobilise the police. It is also its responsibility to manage the security network in the state,” he said.

The comments represent Fayose’s latest broadside in what has become a bitter and increasingly public feud with the Oyo governor over the handling of one of the most distressing security incidents to grip the South-West in recent memory.

Suspected bandits stormed Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, as well as Community Grammar School and L.A. Primary School in Esiele all within Oriire Local Government Area on May 15, abducting more than 45 pupils and seven teachers. One of the abducted teachers, Michael Oyedokun, was subsequently killed by the captors, a development that deepened public anger and triggered street protests in Ibadan.

Fayose had earlier gone further in his allegations, suggesting on Channels Television that the abduction itself may have been orchestrated by the Oyo State Government to embarrass President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections a claim he acknowledged could be wrong but stood by in substance.

Governor Makinde responded to that initial allegation by calling on Nigerians to keep Fayose in their prayers, a pointed and dismissive reaction that signalled the governor had little interest in dignifying what his administration described as reckless political commentary.

Makinde has consistently maintained that the complexity of the rescue operation is rooted in geography, noting that intelligence reports place the remaining abductees deep within the 2,500-square-kilometre Old Oyo National Park, terrain that poses severe operational challenges for security personnel. He has also pushed back against suggestions that state governors hold direct authority over federal security agencies, pointing out that even instructions to the Commissioner of Police must first receive approval from the Inspector-General of Police in Abuja.

None of that, however, has satisfied Fayose, whose interventions have kept the political temperature around the crisis running high.

With 39 pupils and six teachers still in captivity at the time of his latest remarks, and public patience running visibly thin, the former Ekiti governor appears determined to ensure the crisis remains as much a political liability for Makinde as it is a humanitarian one.