Kogi’s own statement reveals the attacked school should never have been opened
Gunmen stormed Government Secondary School, Olowa, in Dekina Local Government Area, at about 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, while students were sitting for the ongoing NECO examinations. Four people were abducted: the school’s principal, Elder Daniel Iyanaa; a NECO official, Mr. Solomon Audu; and two female candidates, one identified as Dorcas Sunday and another identified only as “Miss Dorcas,” whose surname the state government said had not yet been confirmed as of its initial statement.
By Thursday, July 16, the Kogi State Government announced all four had been rescued unharmed, following what it described as a coordinated multi-agency security operation. State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, said sustained pressure from armed personnel saturating the surrounding forest forced the kidnappers to abandon their captives and flee. “We can confirm that the School Principal, the NECO official, and the two students have all been rescued safely. They are hale and hearty and are currently with security agencies for debriefing and necessary medical checks,” Fanwo said.
Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo directed the state’s Security Adviser, retired Commander Jerry Omodara, to coordinate the operation, which drew on the Nigerian Army’s 12 Brigade in Lokoja and 21 Battalion in Anyigba, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, the Kogi State Vigilante Service, and local hunters. The Kogi government also credited President Bola Tinubu, saying he had directed security agency heads to give the state “every necessary support” to secure the victims’ release.
What’s missing from most of the coverage celebrating the rescue is a line buried in the state government’s own operational statement: the school had previously been shut down by the Kogi State Government specifically because of its remote location and security risks. Despite that closure, NECO examinations were still being conducted there, at what the government’s own statement calls a “controversial” and, in some reports, “unauthorized” examination centre.
The government’s account goes further, acknowledging that “the examination arrangements did not conform to the security framework established by the state government for the protection of candidates participating in the ongoing NECO examinations across Kogi State.” In other words: Kogi had already built a security protocol specifically meant to prevent an incident like this one, and this centre was operating outside it. Compounding the concern, the two female candidates abducted were confirmed by the state government to not be regular students of GSS Olowa ,raising the question of why non-enrolled candidates were sitting exams at a remote centre the state had already flagged as high-risk, and who authorized their placement there.
Several basic facts remain unclear from the public record so far: Who made the decision to reopen or continue using a school the state government says it had already shut down? Was NECO even aware the centre fell outside Kogi’s established security framework for exam candidates, and if so, why did the exam proceed there regardless? What is the surname and full identity of the second abducted female candidate, still unconfirmed in the state’s own statements days after the incident?
The Kogi State Government, to its credit, did not attempt to dodge the contradiction entirely, its statement noted that “the circumstances surrounding the examination centre do not diminish its responsibility to protect every resident and visitor within the state.” But acknowledging responsibility after the fact is different from explaining how a previously closed, high-risk site ended up hosting a national examination in the first place.
This is at least the second major school-linked abduction tied to national examinations in recent months, following the 56-day Oyo crisis resolved just last week. Both cases raise the same underlying question: are exam centres becoming a predictable, repeat target, and does NECO or WAEC need a dedicated, enforced security protocol for exam periods, rather than relying on state governments to catch gaps like this one after an attack has already happened?
