THE Chairman of Danko Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, Hussaini Bena, has confirmed to The ICIR that armed men attacked the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in the early hours of Monday, abducting yet to be confirmed number of students.
Bena said the gunmen invaded the school at about 4 a.m., shooting repeatedly before escaping with a yet-to-be-confirmed number of students.
When asked if there were casualties from the attacks, he told The ICIR that he could not confirm the total casualties as he was on his way to the school.
Efforts to get comments from the Kebbi State Police Command were unsuccessful, as the police spokesperson in the state, Nafi’u Abubakar, did not pick the calls to his mobile line when filing this report.
Earlier reporting by HumAngle indicated that residents in Maga said the attackers struck shortly before dawn prayers and fled with several girls.
According to the report, the assailants had not gone far and that community members were calling for urgent government intervention to stop the abductors from escaping.
Kebbi State has witnessed repeated school abductions in recent years, including the June 2021 invasion of the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, where many students and five teachers were taken after gunmen overran the school.
On June 17, 2021, terrorists attacked the FGC in Birnin Yauri and kidnapped about 80 students and teachers.
Some students were severely injured in the gun battle between the abductors and the police. A policeman was also killed in the incident.
A letter had been addressed to the school, presumably by the terrorists, warning of the attack, but the authorities dismissed it as a prank.
While some students were earlier released, 11 remained in captivity.
In April 2023, The ICIR reported that four of the kidnapped students regained freedom after two years in captivity.
The mass abduction of students had become more frequent in Nigeria since 2014, when at least 276 girls were kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.
In 2021, following the mass abduction of students of the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna, the state government ordered the closure of schools in the state.
According to the state Ministry of Education’s Annual School Census Report 2018/2019/February 2020, the closure affected over 5,000 pre-primary to senior secondary schools, both private and public.
Also, a report by Save the Children, in 2023 a charity organisation, over 1,680 students and teachers have been kidnapped from schools majorly in the North since 2014.
In addition to Kaduna, there had been closure of schools in Zamfara, Niger and other states battling insecurity in Nigeria.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M