From Kebbi to Niger in 5 Days: Terrorists Hit Catholic School, Snatch Scores of Souls
The clock struck 2 a.m., and hell slipped through the gates.
Armed men—ghosts in the moonless dark—scaled the walls of St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School like they owned the place.
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No alarms. No guards firing back. Just the muffled cries of teenage girls and boys, herded at gunpoint into the waiting forest. By 3 a.m., the compound was empty.
Dozens gone.
Over 52, by the latest count from frantic roll calls at dawn. The Head of Disaster and Relief for Agwara Local Government, Ahmed Abdullahi Rofia, picked up his phone as the first light broke: “They came between 2 and 3. We’re still counting heads. Teachers too—snatched from their beds.”
Bello Gidi, media aide to the local chairman, didn’t mince words to Sahara Reporters: “Yes, it’s true. Bandits kidnapped students and teachers at St. Mary’s. Coordinated. Swift. Gone.” This wasn’t a random hit.
Niger State Government had warned schools days earlier—credible intel of threats rippling through the North Senatorial District. They shut down boardings, halted construction. But St. Mary’s?
It reopened quietly, without clearance. A decision that turned classrooms into coffins. Eyewitnesses in Papiri whisper of the same playbook: the Kebbi raid just five days ago, where 25 girls vanished from Maga Comprehensive and a vice principal bled out shielding them.
Now this—another Catholic cross under siege, in a belt where faith and farms bleed together. The Niger State Government’s statement drips regret: “Deep sadness. Avoidable risk. Security agencies are on it—full rescue ops launched.”
Police spokesman SP Wasiu Abiodun: “Details soon. Stay calm.”But on X, calm is a luxury long stolen. ARISE News breaks it raw: “Terrorists invade Catholic school—days after Kebbi.”
“Several students taken. Exact number? Unknown.” No group claims it yet. Bandits? ISWAP fringes? The knives don’t care for labels. They just carve.
In Abuja, the federal machine hums with promises. But here, in the bush where rosaries tangle with ransom demands, parents claw at empty dorms.
One mother, voice cracking to Daily Trust: “My girl prayed before bed. Now? God knows.”
Five days. Two schools. Scores of stolen futures. When does the warning become the war?
