Abuja – The Federal Government announced on Sunday that 100 of the schoolchildren abducted in a daring raid on St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State have been freed. The children were among the 315 people seized when armed bandits stormed the school on November 21, arriving on motorbikes around 2:00 a.m. and holding the campus for more than three hours.
During the attack the gunmen abducted 303 students and 12 teachers. Fifty pupils managed to escape within the first day, but 265 victims – 253 of them children – remained in captivity, prompting a massive search operation by security forces and local hunters. Authorities have since intensified aerial surveillance across parts of Niger, Kebbi and Kwara states to locate the remaining hostages.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who cancelled scheduled international travel to oversee the crisis, said, “I have cancelled my scheduled international travel to coordinate the national response.” He added that the government would spare no effort to bring the rest of the children and teachers home.
The Niger State government, reacting to the heightened security threat, ordered the indefinite closure of all schools in the state. A senior security official involved in the operation told reporters, “We are conducting continuous aerial surveillance and ground sweeps, and we will not rest until every child and teacher is safely returned.”
Officials say the rescue effort is ongoing, with security forces and local hunters working around the clock. Further updates are expected as the operation continues.
The release of the 100 children marks the first major breakthrough in a case that has shocked the nation and drawn attention to the escalating kidnapping crisis in the northwest.
