A teacher rescued after spending 56 days in captivity has revealed that the kidnappers holding him and dozens of others occasionally washed their clothes to reduce body odour, as he dismissed claims that the abduction of pupils and teachers in Oyo State was staged.

Zachery Olatunde, one of the teachers abducted from schools in Oriire Local Government Area, made the disclosure in a video shared by Oyo Matters after regaining his freedom alongside other victims following a security operation.

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Freed Oyo teacher says kidnappers washed captives’ clothes while they were held in the Old Oyo National Park, explaining that the abductors laundered their clothing whenever they noticed the captives had begun to smell.

“The abductors are the ones that wash the clothes for us a few times while we were in captivity, when they notice that we are already smelling,” Olatunde said.

He explained that the revelation was intended to counter social media claims suggesting the victims appeared too neat after their rescue for the kidnapping to have been genuine.

“Don’t they see how rough and dirty we the teachers were? Didn’t they see how rough our beards were, like that of a bush rat?” he added.

Olatunde also rejected allegations that the kidnapping had been orchestrated, pointing to the deaths of two victims during the ordeal as evidence of the severity of the attack.

“Those saying the kidnapping was staged don’t know what they are saying. If it was staged, would they have killed two people? If it was staged, what we went through in that place was not good at all,” he said.

Addressing another claim circulating online, Olatunde explained that the rescued primary school pupils were wearing matching ankara outfits because of an existing Oyo State policy requiring pupils in private primary schools to wear native attire on Fridays.

“They said the children were wearing matching ankara. Are they not in Oyo State? Don’t they know that the government has ordered that schoolchildren should be wearing native attires on Friday?” he said.

The abduction occurred on May 15, 2026, when armed men attacked three schools in the Ahoro-Esiele and Yawota communities of Oriire Local Government Area, abducting 46 pupils and teachers, including school principal Folawe Alamu.

During the attack, assistant headmaster Joel Adesiyan was killed while attempting to escape. Days later, Mathematics teacher Michael Oyedokun was reportedly killed while in captivity.

The victims regained their freedom on July 10 following a coordinated rescue operation involving the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, and local vigilante groups.