LAGOS: An unknown number of pupils have been abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria by armed gangs, police and a government official said Friday, in the second such incident in less than a week.
The school kidnappings and an attack on a church earlier this week come weeks after Trump threatened military action over what he described as the targeted killings of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian government.
“The Niger State government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St. Mary’s School in Agwara local government area,” Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement.
“The exact number of abducted pupils is yet to be confirmed as security agencies continue to assess the situation”.
The attack comes just days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls early Monday morning. One escaped and 24 are still missing.
Niger state police said its tactical units and the military have been deployed to search for the pupils.
Police received a report at about 2:00 am (0100 GMT), that “some armed bandits invaded St. Mary’s Private (Catholic) Secondary School... and abducted a yet to be ascertained number of students from the school’s hostel,” the force said in a statement.
It said security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students”.
Nigerian security forces have been placed on high alert this week as the country faces an uncomfortable spotlight on its security situation.
In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, gunmen killed two people during a service that was recorded and broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu ordered his minister of state for defence to go to western Kebbi state, where the two dozen girls kidnapped from their boarding school earlier this week are still missing.
The order for minister Alhaji Bello Matawalle to “relocate to Kebbi State over the abduction of 24 schoolgirls” came as pressure mounted on the government after Trump this month threatened military action over what he described as the killing of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian authorities.
A presidency statement said Matawalle had “experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping”, after he secured the release of 279 students aged between 10 and 17 who had been kidnapped from a government secondary school in 2021 in western Zamfara state.
Another state, Kwara, in the east of the country, has ordered some schools shut following a deadly raid on a church on Tuesday, a government official told AFP.
Gunmen stormed a church service in the state on Tuesday, killing at least two people.
Michael Agbabiaka, an elder of the church, told AFP that the attackers fired shots, beat up worshippers and ransacked bags, taking cash and mobile phones.
Speaking by phone, he said 35 people had been abducted by the attackers.
