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Armed attackers have seized in excess of 300 students and teachers in one of the biggest group abductions in modern Nigerian times, as stated by a religious organization on the weekend.

Escalating Emergency in School Institutions

The Friday morning attack on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state happened just a short time after gunmen attacked a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 young women.

Initial reports had stated 227 victims were taken, but updated numbers were released after a comprehensive verification exercise determined that 303 pupils and 12 instructors had been abducted.

The kidnapped students, aged between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Official Response and Security Measures

Local authorities have announced that security agencies and law enforcement are currently conducting a thorough head count to verify the precise number of abducted individuals.

In reaction to the increasing security concerns, the local authorities has mandated the closure of every schools in the state, with nearby states adopting comparable preventive measures.

Furthermore, the national education ministry has directed the provisional closure of 47 boarding secondary schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on managing the situation.

Recent Security Events

The educational institution kidnappings represent the latest in a series of security incidents that have shaken the country, including an attack on a church in the west of Nigeria where gunmen shot dead two people and seized many congregation members during a online broadcast service.

These events have taken place against the background of global attention on Nigeria's safety situation.

Past Background

Nigeria remains scarred by the memory of the mass abduction of almost 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those girls still missing.

Firsthand Accounts

In a concerning recording circulated by Christian groups, a frightened worker described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple entrances of the compound.

"Students were weeping," the witness stated, recounting her fear while looking for access to the section where the screaming was loudest.

The regional Catholic authority confirmed that the "assailants operated aggressively and without interruption for almost three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried parents were collecting their children from educational institutions following the closure order.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her shock at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 students could be abducted at once.

She stated that the "government is not doing enough to combat insecurity," and expressed support for external intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Safety Challenges

For years, heavily armed criminal gangs have been carrying out killings and abductions for money in rural areas of northern and central Nigeria, where government control is limited.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in rural areas where security is weak.

These groups maintain bases in vast woodland areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

While these bandits have no political motives and are primarily driven by financial gain, their increasing alliance with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a significant source of concern for authorities and experts alike.