By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
Suspected bandits have stormed and invaded a missionary school in Papiri ward, Agwara local government area of Niger state and kidnapped over 100 students in the early hours of Friday.
The missionary school, St. Mary Primary and Secondary School, operates both a day and a boarding system and has been in existence for over 50 years, offering quality education to the entire Borgu kingdom.
According to a source close to Papiri community, the heavily armed men arrived at the school at about 3:00 am. They cordoned off the whole area before moving into the hostel from where they marched all the students to a waiting two Mitsubishi canter.
“In their usual manner, they shot sporadically into the air to scare everybody away on their arrival in the school.
This latest attack is coming barely two weeks after gunmen ambushed the convoy of the member representing Agwara/Borgu federal Constituency, Hon Jafaru Mohammed Ali and killed six soldiers in the area.
The number of casualties could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report, as there is no official statement from either the school management, the state government or the state police command.
It could be recalled that in 2021, gunmen in a similar manner invaded Government Science Secondary Kagara, the headquarters of Rafi local government area of the state and abducted no fewer than 42 people, among them 27 students.
It was followed by another mass abduction of about 200 children from an Islamic school in Tegina, the same Rafi local government area of the state
The development forced the state government, then under Sani Bello, to close down all boarding schools across the state.
No fewer than 22 schools (11 day schools and 11 boarding schools) were closed in the wake of the kidnapping incidents across the state.
