{"id":3426,"date":"2026-10-01T15:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:26:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:26:56","slug":"nigeria-66-78-borno-children-still-in-captivity-139-days-after-kidnap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3426","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria @ 66: 78 Borno Children Still In Captivity 139 Days After Abduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Harrenta Brown <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nigeria celebrates 66 years of independence today, 42 reportedly children taken from a school in Borno State have spent 139 days in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were abducted on May 15th 2026 from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Borno State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six weeks later, on June 29, a second attack struck the same local government area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gunmen reportedly raided Government Day Secondary School in Lassa about 20 km from Mussa, killing a teacher who refused to go with them and abducting 36 students and one more teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gunmen struck two schools on May 15th in Oyo State and Borno State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Oyo, 39 children and seven teachers were abducted. l<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oyo case became a viral topic and made news headlines within days, driven by outrage after one of the kidnapped teachers, Mr. Michael Oyedokun, was beheaded. Social media coverage was constant, and 56 days later, on July 10th, the surviving Oyo children and teachers were released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Nigerians are shocked to learn for the first time that these children have been in captivity for that long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their shock is followed by a question: How did this happen without them knowing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of the past four and a half months, most Nigerians had no idea they were still in captivity. Interviewed individuals\u2019 reactions have ranged from disbelief to suspicion of a deliberate silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamsi and his friend Victor both believe the government\u2019s silence is political, as they pointed to next year\u2019s election, saying \u201cthe media isn\u2019t talking about it because it reflects badly on the country and on the coming election\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judith had no idea the children were still missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s evil and heartbreaking that these children are still in captivity while the government remains silent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enor reacted with the same shock, saying she had no idea and called for the government\u2019s transparency, also urging officials to update citizens on the case so the children do not become forgotten the way the Chibok girls were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Nigerian who asked not to be named wondered why a country was celebrating its independence when it truly had no independent security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He asked who was to be blamed and believes that the silence has a regional dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that Northern Nigeria receives less attention than the South, and that the case would have moved faster if influencers and politicians got involved the same way they did with the Oyo case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tife, a corper, wondered why there were no press conferences and coverage on the matter, and why it wasn\u2019t being treated with urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She feared she could have been the one taken and forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big questions Nigerians are asking now are not only where the children are, but why has the case not generated the same urgency as the Oyo State case?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also questioned the celebration of independence as a country when children of the country are still in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two kidnappings on the same day, but with two entirely different outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of today, the two attacks combined have left 78 schoolchildren from the same corner of Borno State in captivity, 42 from Mussa, now at 139 days, and 36 from Lassa, now at 94 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two kidnappings that happened 45 days apart in the same local government area and neither has produced a rescue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harrenta Brown As Nigeria celebrates 66 years of independence today, 42 reportedly children taken from a school in Borno State have spent 139 days in captivity. They were abducted on May 15th 2026 from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Borno State. Six weeks later, on June 29, a second attack struck the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,52],"tags":[491,720,596],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-politics","tag-insecuirty","tag-terrorists","tag-tinubus-admininstration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}