Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State had interaction with protesters at the Government House, Ibadan. The governor expressed support for their protest of the kidnapped children and teachers from school in Oriire Local Government Area.

According to Governor Makinde @seyimakinde,

"Today, we met with protesters in Ibadan led by Martins Otse, VeryDarkMan.

"The group, who have remained peaceful, are protesting to demand the rescue of the abducted children and teachers from Oriire LGA a month and one day ago.

"Watch the clip of our interaction."

VeryDarkMan explained their presence at the Government House. According to VDM, "We are here to ask the Governor when are the children coming back? And what he is doing to bring the children to come back.

Governor Makinde, in response, stated inter alia: "I will tell you the truth, and nothing but the truth.

"If I am not in Government, I will be with you; I will be protesting also, assuming I am not the Governor of Oyo State. So, I do not have anything against what you are doing.

"Yes, to have a society where leaders are accountable, to have a society that is inclusive, sometimes, it may require agitation; it may require protest; it may require people getting up from their comfort zone to do something like this.

"I will not shift blame, but our reality is that a state government is not in charge of all the security agencies.

"I am not; As Governor of Oyo State, the CP I can call him, we can meet, but I cannot deploy him. If I say go to X Y Z, he will need to get approval from the Inspector General of Police. The same thing with the military.

"However, when I came in, security was one of the cardinal principles of the administration. That is why we set up Amotekun.

"Amotekum has not been armed adequately. But that is our reality.

"However, let me give you the assurance that I am also distressed, because I have children of my own. I am also distressed with what has happened to our children and it has been one month and one day already.

"Because of the nature of the security situation that is involved I cannot divulge a lot of the information. But I can tell you that there is no information that any of those children or their teachers have died, as of today.

"And because the rescue operation... and this is the first anywhere in Nigeria that they kidnapped people, that they have done it through nursery and primary school children...
"So, the operation to rescue them is a special kind of operation, if we don't want to lose them...

"I give you the assurance that I as the Governor of Oyo State, by God's grace, will bring out those our children. They are talking to us, it is not something that we normally do. If government starts negotiating with bandits, it means we are surrendering sovereignty to the bandits. but in this present situation, if we want those children alive, we have to bend backward. Once the children are out, I will give you the assurance that it will not occur again in Oyo State.

"And for Nigeria, I believe we don't deserve this..."