By: Yunusa Umar
In a midnight raid, terrorists invaded Papiri village under Agwara area of Niger State, North-Central, kidnapping dozens of pupils yet unknown in St. Mary’s school in Agwara area under Borgu Emirate.
A community source who spoke to New Daily Prime narrated that the gunmen raided the school around 1am of Friday, leaving the community in fear.
One of the sources, who preferred to be named Mallam Jaafaru said dozens of pupils were kidnapped during the night raid.
“I could not give the number of kidnapped pupils. The abduction happened on the night of Thursday to Friday. The school is a mixture of boys and girls pupils in Papiri area”, he said.
“The number of victims cannot be specified as some kidnapped pupils who manage to escape are still returning from Bush”, he said.
The source further stated that gunmen left with many of the pupils as the school is yet to ascertain the number of abducted victims.
This newspaper learnt that the school watchman was shot during the raid as he is now receiving medical attention in an undisclosed hospital.
Another community source, Usman who gave only his first name for security reasons told this newspaper, in a telephone call that the watchman in ST Mary School was brutally shot by the gunmen.
“The security officer who is positioned in the school was hit by a gunman’s bullet. The attack was carried out after 1am,” he told this newspaper.
“It is a boarding school but the gunmen targeted the Primary section of the school kidnapping an unspecified number of pupils in the attack”, he said, adding that some pupils were able to scale out of the attack.
Wasiu Abiodun, the Police spokeswoman, was not available for comment when contacted. His WhatsApp and SMS messages sent to him remained unattended to.
The Head of Department, Disaster and Relief, Agwara Local Government Abdullahi Rofia confirmed the attack but could not give a number of abducted victims.
This is coming barely a week after gunmen invaded Maga school in Kebbi, kidnapping at least 25 girls during the attack.
The attack, which sparked outrage, had led Vice-president, Kashim Shettima to visit and condole with the abducted families.
