The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has called on the Federal Government to fulfill its constitutional responsibility by intensifying rescue operations for all citizens still held by terrorists, including the schoolchildren of Mussa, Lassa, Shikarkir, Ariko, Awon and every other forgotten community across Nigeria.
Mr. Luka Binniyat, spokesman of the Middle Belt Forum, in a statement made available to DAILY POST in Kaduna on Wednesday, said, “The rescue of the Oyo victims has demonstrated that determined action can produce results. The same commitment must now be extended to every Nigerian still in captivity.
“The Middle Belt Forum also urges the Nigerian Union of Teachers to demonstrate that its concern for the safety of teachers and schoolchildren is national in scope by extending the same solidarity to the victims in Southern Borno. If the union truly believes that every Nigerian teacher and every Nigerian child deserves equal protection, then it must speak with the same outrage and conviction on behalf of these forgotten pupils.”
The forum appealed to civil society organisations, human rights groups, religious leaders, the media, development partners and the international community not to allow the innocent victims to disappear from public consciousness, saying that every Nigerian child held hostage by enemies of society deserves to be remembered, every hostage deserves hope and every family deserves justice.
While the forum commended the Federal Government, the security agencies and all those who played a role in the successful rescue of the schoolchildren and teachers abducted in Oyo State on May 15, 2026, it said that every Nigerian, regardless of ethnicity, religion or location, deserves equal protection under the Constitution.
According to the statement, “Sadly, on the very same day terrorists abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State, Boko Haram terrorists attacked Government Day Secondary School, Mussa, in Askira/Uba Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State. The school complex included a secondary school, a primary school and a nursery school. Forty-two innocent children were abducted, including toddlers as young as two years old. What has followed since then is deeply disturbing.
“While the entire nation rightly mobilised in support of the Oyo victims, the children of Mussa have suffered in almost complete silence. There has been little visible concern from the Borno State Government, the Federal Government, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), civil society organisations and many human rights groups. The national media, which devoted extensive attention to the Oyo tragedy, has remained largely silent on the fate of these innocent children.”
The spokesman explained that the forum found the painful silence difficult to understand and impossible to justify, lamenting that on June 29, 2026, armed terrorists attacked Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, also in Askira/Uba LGA while students were sitting for their secondary school examinations. Thirty-six students (25 girls and 11 boys) and one staff member were abducted. It said that at least one teacher was killed during the attack.
Since the first reports of that “horrific incident,” Binniyat stated that the nation appears to have moved on, leaving the victims and their grieving families to suffer alone, saying, “It is as if these children have been forgotten simply because they come from what appears to be a neglected part of Nigeria.
“This painful pattern did not begin this year. In August 2025, terrorists invaded Shikarkir in Chibok LGA in Southern Borno and abducted seven boys and girls. To this day, those children remain in captivity.”
The statement added, “On April 6, 2026, during Easter Sunday worship, armed Fulani bandits attacked three churches in Ariko Village in Kachia LGA in Kaduna State. Seven innocent worshippers were murdered and 37 people, mostly women and children, were abducted. Among those taken away was an elderly blind man. One of the kidnapped women even gave birth while in captivity. A few are said to have now died due to the harsh, brutal conditions of their captivity.”
It explained that barely two weeks later, on April 20, 2026, Awon community in Kachia Local Government Area was attacked, killing two people and abducting 11 others, pointing out that the victims remain in captivity while their families continue to “endure unimaginable pain with little reassurance from those entrusted with protecting them.”
“What makes this even more painful is that while innocent citizens remain abandoned in the hands of terrorists, enormous public resources continue to be devoted to programmes for so-called repentant Boko Haram members in Borno State and various rehabilitation initiatives for repentant bandits in Kaduna State,” the statement lamented..
