FG, states shut schools as terrorists abduct 215 Niger pupils

Tinubu

The Federal Government and some northern states have ordered a shutdown of academic activities in some schools over rising insecurity and abduction of pupils.

While the Federal Government closed 41 unity schools, governors of Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Benue, and Katsina also shut down schools in their states.

Tension escalated on Friday after bandits attacked St Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in the Papiri community of Agwara Local Government Area, Niger State, abducting 215 students and 12 teachers.

This was only four days after 26 schoolgirls were abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi.

During that Monday attack, the terrorists shot dead the school’s Vice Principal, Hasan Makuku, and left the principal with a gunshot wound.

Two of the abducted girls later managed to escape, one returning late on Monday and the other fleeing moments after the attack.

President Bola Tinubu had on Thursday directed the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, to immediately relocate to Kebbi State and coordinate efforts to rescue the girls.

While Nigerians were still reeling from the kidnap of the Kebbi schoolgirls, gunmen again struck the Niger Catholic school around 2am on Friday.

A source in the school, who confirmed the incident to Saturday PUNCH, said the bandits stormed the school while the boarding students were asleep.

The source noted that the attack lasted for one hour before the gunmen eventually whisked the victims away to unknown destinations.

The terrorists reportedly stormed the school on over 100 motorcycles.

The Chairman of the Niger State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Most Rev. Bulus Yohanna, in a statement signed by his media aide, Daniel Atori, on Friday, said 215 pupils and 12 teachers were abducted.