🔗 Share this article

Gunmen have abducted in excess of 300 students and teachers in what appears to be the largest group abductions in recent Nigerian times, as reported by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Growing Emergency in Educational Institutions

The early Friday attack on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state happened just a short time after gunmen invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, seizing 25 young women.

Earlier reports had stated 227 individuals were seized, but updated numbers surfaced after a comprehensive verification exercise established that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

The abducted pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's total student body of 629.

Official Response and Security Actions

State officials have confirmed that intelligence departments and police are currently conducting a comprehensive head count to determine the exact number of abducted individuals.

In response to the growing safety fears, the local authorities has ordered the closure of every schools in the state, with nearby states adopting similar precautionary steps.

Furthermore, the federal education ministry has directed the temporary shutting of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on addressing the crisis.

Recent Security Events

The school kidnappings constitute the latest in a sequence of safety incidents that have rocked the nation, including an assault on a place of worship in western Nigeria where gunmen killed two individuals and seized numerous worshipers during a online broadcast service.

These incidents have occurred against the background of global focus on Nigeria's security situation.

Historical Context

Nigeria remains traumatized by the memory of the mass kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with several of those victims still missing.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a concerning video clip shared by Christian organizations, a distraught school staff member recounted hearing the noise of motorcycles and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on various gates of the compound.

"Children were weeping," the witness reported, describing her panic while searching for keys to the area where the crying was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers operated violently and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Public Reaction and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, worried parents were collecting their students from schools following the shutdown order.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her shock at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 students could be taken simultaneously.

She concluded that the "authorities is failing to act to curb insecurity," and expressed support for international intervention to "resolve this situation."

Ongoing Safety Issues

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been conducting killings and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While no group has taken credit for the recent attacks, criminal groups seeking financial compensation often target schools in countryside locations where security is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in vast woodland areas straddling multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no political motives and are primarily driven by financial gain, their growing cooperation with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of worry for authorities and security analysts alike.