Special Adviser to the President on Media and Communication, Sunday Dare, has said that the remaining 130 students abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Niger State, regained their freedom on Sunday, bringing to an end one of Nigeria’s largest recent mass school kidnappings.
Dare disclosed this in a post on his official X handle Sunday evening.
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“Another 130 abducted Niger State pupils released. None left in captivity,” Dare wrote, adding that all 303 students and 12 teachers seized during the November 21 attack have now been accounted for.
The freed children arrived in Minna, the Niger State capital, joining earlier batches released in phases over the past month.
Shortly after the abduction, about 50 students escaped on their own, while security agencies freed 100 students on December 8 following what President Bola Tinubu described as “sustained security operations.”
The students were received at the Niger State Government House in a ceremony attended by Governor Mohammed Bago, who assured that health workers would examine the children before reuniting them with their families.
The abduction occurred in the early hours of November 21, when armed men on motorcycles stormed the boarding school in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers fired shots into the air to create panic before moving from dormitory to dormitory, rounding up students and staff.
A security staffer at the school was badly injured, according to the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora, which owns the institution.
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger State and school proprietor, Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, said the incident caused “immense anguish” for families, the OLA Sisters worldwide, the Diocese of Kontagora, and the local community.
The Niger State Government initially blamed the school for reopening without clearance, arguing that the attack occurred despite prior intelligence of heightened threats in the region.
“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and staff to avoidable risk,” said Abubakar Usman, Secretary to the Niger State Government.
The school’s principal, Felicia Gyam, disputed the claim, insisting there was no prior warning or government circular notifying the school of a threat.