KEY POINTS

• Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele vowed to fast-track state police legislation after 87 students and teachers were abducted in Borno and Oyo within 24 hours.
• IGP Olatunji Disu visited Oyo and ordered intensified search-and-rescue operations across affected communities in Oriire LGA.
• Amotekun, police tactical teams and local hunters are combing forests and hideouts to locate the abducted victims and arrest perpetrators.

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele on Sunday vowed that the National Assembly will fast-track state police legislation after gunmen abducted 87 students and teachers in Borno and Oyo states within a 24-hour window, deepening the political pressure for structural changes to Nigeria’s security architecture.

Bamidele’s commitment, in a statement from his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, framed the back-to-back abductions as a national emergency that the federal legislature can no longer treat as a routine debate.

Now the pledge sits at the heart of the country’s security conversation as Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu travels through affected communities and security agencies push fresh search-and-rescue operations.

Senate ramps up legislation

Specifically, Bamidele said the incessant abduction of students and teachers “is a tragic national concern that negates our national development indices,” and pledged that the National Assembly will rise against the trend through legislation.

Indeed, he said the Assembly will perfect outstanding legislative initiatives on security as soon as plenaries resume on June 2, with state police considered the most consequential of the pending bills.

Disu met Oyo Commissioner of Police Abimbola Olugbenga and other security stakeholders, receiving operational briefings on rescue efforts and deployments across the affected communities.

“The Nigeria Police Force remains fully committed to the protection of schools, communities, and all citizens across the country,” Disu said, telling residents that tactical deployments, intelligence gathering and coordinated search-and-rescue operations had intensified.

Forests under search

Additionally, the Oyo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun, said operatives have launched coordinated sweeps across forests and neighboring communities. Commandant Olayanju Olayinka, a retired colonel, said local hunters, vigilantes and other agencies have joined the rescue mission.

“Our personnel are already combing the forests and suspected hideouts. We are working with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the safe rescue of the victims,” Olayinka said. Meanwhile, Police Public Relations Officer DSP Olayinka Ayanlade said the commissioner of police has ordered an extensive manhunt for the perpetrators. Tactical and intelligence teams reached the affected communities immediately after the incident.

However, the Oyo state government’s framing keeps to the political playbook. While Commissioner for Information Dotun Oyelade said the state is collaborating with security agencies to bring the abducted children home safely.

Together, the IGP’s Oyo trip, the Amotekun deployment and the Senate’s state-police push paint a coordinated response to attacks that have once again exposed how stretched Nigeria’s security forces have become. The 87 victims from Borno and Oyo in a 24-hour window underscore how rapidly armed gangs can strike across distant geographies.

Whether the state police legislation actually clears the National Assembly will determine whether Sunday’s pledges translate into permanent capacity. Yet for now, parents, pupils and teachers across affected zones are watching the rescue operation more closely than the legislative timetable, with the immediate fate of 87 abducted Nigerians dwarfing every other consideration.