Niger: Number of abducted students, teachers has risen to 315 — Catholic Diocese

The school’s signpost

The number of students and teachers abducted by suspected terrorists from St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools, Papiri, in Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State, appears to have risen to 315. This came on a day Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State directed all private and public schools in the state to shutdown hostels and revert to day schooling.

Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State also ordered the shutdown of all schools across the state.
Meanwhile, a breakdown of those declared wanted as of press time showed that while 303 were students, 12 were teachers.

Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Niger State, who is also the Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese, Most Reverend Bulus Johanna, yesterday gave the update after a verification exercise and a final census was carried out.

His media aide, Daniel Atori, in a statement, denied receiving any official letter advising the school to shut down over insecurity.

The statement reads: “After we left the school at Papiri, we decided to make calls, do a verification exercise and do further enquiries on those we had thought escaped, only to discover that 88 more students were also captured after they tried to escape.

“Our attention was drawn when some parents whose children we had thought escaped from the attack also came asking of their children. We became curious, and that was when we did a census and discovered that they were abducted.

“This now makes it 303 students (male and female) including 12 teachers (four females and eight males), bringing the total number of abducted persons to 315. The total of pupils and students is 629 with the primary having 430 and the secondary 199 students.”

On the purported letter written to the school to shutdown, the statement said: “On getting back to the village after I visited the school, where I also met with parents of the children to assure them that we are working with the government and security agencies to see that our children are rescued and brought back safely, I got information which I termed propaganda. That the school was given a prior warning by government through a circular is not true. “We did not receive any circular; it must be an afterthought and a way to shift blame. In the past, around 2022, when we heard of rumours of security challenges, we did not hesitate, we shutdown immediately. Is it when there is a circular from government asking us to shutdown that we won’t obey? “The school is owned by the Catholic Diocese, not by any individual. None of the reverend sisters travelled to Abuja as they alleged. Whoever made that misleading statement should know that it is a false allegation and should withdraw such or provide the proof and evidence.