Abducted Niger Pupils, Teachers Now 303 After Fresh Verification
The scale of last Friday’s mass abduction in Niger State has expanded sharply, as officials of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area, confirmed that the number of missing pupils has risen to 303, alongside 12 teachers. The sombre update followed a fresh verification exercise carried out by the Catholic Diocese and school authorities, who said the initial figures released in the chaotic aftermath of the attack did not reflect the true extent of the incident. According to the Diocese, 88 additional pupils were discovered to be missing after a door-to-door headcount across hostels and neighboring communities. Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger State, said the revised tally came only after “painstaking checks” conducted with parents, guardians and staff. His remarks carried a measured urgency, underscoring the gravity of a situation that continues to unfold with unsettling twists. He also rejected claims circulating on social media and in some political circles that the government had issued a warning instructing the school to shut its boarding facilities before the attack. The Bishop described such assertions as “propaganda,” insisting that neither the Diocese nor the school ever received any notice. His push back leaves an unresolved tension between the church and state authorities over questions of responsibility. The school, which had an enrollment of 629 pupils — 430 in the primary section and 199 in the secondary — now stands deserted, its silence matching the mood of a community struggling to comprehend the magnitude of the abduction. Security agencies, backed by local vigilante groups, have intensified search-and-rescue efforts across remote stretches of forests believed to serve as escape routes for the attackers. Officials have, however, withheld operational details, citing the sensitivity of the mission. For families in Papiri, each passing day has deepened the anxiety, with many clustering around parish buildings and makeshift information points, awaiting news that remains painfully scarce. The incident, one of the country’s largest mass school abductions in recent years, has once again put Nigeria’s education security architecture under public scrutiny, reviving debates over intelligence gaps, weak early-warning systems and the vulnerability of remote rural schools. As the rescue operation continues, parents and church officials maintain a fragile thread of hope. But the rising numbers, pieced together through painstaking verification, serve as a stark reminder of how swiftly a single night’s violence can redraw the lines of an entire community’s life.
| 2025-11-22 19:20:25