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Families of dozens of schoolchildren abducted in Borno State have made an emotional appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, demanding urgent action to secure the release of their children from captivity.
The appeal comes as some of the victims have now spent about 100 days in captivity, leaving their families increasingly worried about their safety and welfare.
According to reports, 42 pupils and students of Mussa Primary and Junior Day Secondary School in Askira/Uba Local Government Area were abducted on May 15, 2026.
A second major school attack followed on June 29, when 36 students of Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, were abducted while sitting for their National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations.
Together, the two incidents account for about 78 abducted schoolchildren, whose continued captivity has also prompted UNICEF to call on the Federal Government and Borno State Government to accelerate efforts to secure their release.
The affected families are also demanding action over other kidnapping incidents in Borno, including 38 people abducted along the Buratai Road to Maiduguri, as well as victims taken along the Chibok route and elsewhere in the state.
Their message to the authorities is simple: bring our children and loved ones home.
The families pointed to successful rescue operations elsewhere in Nigeria and questioned why similar urgency could not produce results for victims in Borno.
Their appeal comes despite previous assurances from the Federal Government that the safe return of abducted pupils was a national priority. In June, Information Minister Mohammed Idris said President Tinubu had directed security agencies to deploy all lawful measures, including a specialised rescue team, to secure abducted children.
President Tinubu had also ordered stronger protection for schools in high-risk areas, including updated vulnerability mapping, better coordination between state governments and security agencies and stronger community-based early-warning systems.
The continuing captivity of the Borno pupils, however, raises difficult questions about the effectiveness of those measures.
For the affected parents, this is no longer simply another statistic in Nigeria’s insecurity crisis. These are children who went to school to learn — some even to write examinations — but never returned home.
As the days in captivity continue to mount, the central question facing the government is becoming increasingly urgent:
How long should Nigerian parents have to wait for children abducted from their classrooms to come home?
