Two months after, teaching and learning remain paused in Papiri, Niger State, with St. Mary’s Catholic School under lock.
DAILY POST reports that this is also as its 230 students and teachers are still reeling from the trauma and shock of their abduction.
The November 21, 2025, attack was a devastating blow to the community, and the recent Kasuwan Daji massacre has only exacerbated fears among the people.
Recall that gunmen on Friday, November 21, 2025, gunmen stormed the school in broad daylight, abducting students and teachers.
With the intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Office of the National Security Adviser, the students and their teachers were released and handed over to Governor Mohammed Umar Bago with the first batch of 100 on 8th and second of 130 on 22nd of December, 2025
Before their release, the Federal Government’s delegation led by the NSA Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had visited Kontagora, some days after the kidnap where he met parents, relatives and authorities of St Mary Catholic School, Papiri, and assured that “the 230 children and teachers are doing fine and would return back safely”, which went a long way in calming the rising tension then. Findings showed that the area’s security situation is dire, with no military base and well equipped police force. The police allegedly lack personnel, operational vehicles, and sufficient firearms, making it impossible to tackle the bandits invading the areas.
This security vacuum has emboldened the bandits, who continue to terrorize the area. The convoluted military chain of command, a relic of the area’s past as part of Kwara State, is said to hinder rapid response to attacks.
Apart from these, findings also revealed a lack of military bases in Agwara LGA and Borgu LGA North of Kainji Game Reserve has further compromised security of the areas. The police are overstretched, with a mere 40 mobile police personnel guarding the village and school, who are expected to defend the people against the large number of bandits during attacks. Also, there is a serious lack of co-ordination between security agencies, particularly with the military. As a result, the people of Papiri are living in constant fear.
“We fear for our children’s lives and education,” says Musa Hassan, a distraught parent.
The closure of St. Mary’s has left over 50 communities without access to quality education, exacerbating Niger State’s already alarming out-of-school rate.
Parents are worried that if the school remains closed, their children may never return to school, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and illiteracy.
The recent directive by Niger State government to keep schools with terrorist threats shut has further fueled speculation among the people that St. Mary’s School, being the only quality educational institution serving over 50 communities, might face permanent closure.
With millions of Nigerian children already out of school, the closure of this school could further dim the prospects of quality education for the affected children. Some of the students who experienced the ordeal and are still reeling from the trauma, Florence Michael and Felicia Musa, prayed for the government to provide security, saying, “We want to continue with our education. If we don’t continue, we will all go back to farms and be denied basic education.”
Another teacher, Mrs. Hannah Tevi, who was abducted alongside her son and her husband who was visiting them at the time, described their experience in captivity as very traumatic and still remains fresh in their memories,
As the concerns continue, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, in a statement earlier in the month, called for stronger protection of civilian spaces and schools following the series of attacks in Niger State.
Fall described the abduction of the school children and teachers as a “grave violation of human rights, including the right to life and the protection of civilians, particularly, the abduction of women and children, undermining the right to education.”
Similarly, Hon. Jonathan Vatsa, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State, in a statement called for the immediate establishment of a military base and deployment of marine police to Agwara local government to minimize terrorist attacks.
“The persistent and current situation is beyond what the state government alone can handle.
“River Niger has increasingly become a security blind spot that enables armed groups to evade land-based security operations, and this vulnerability was glaringly exposed during the insecurity around Papiri community where attackers leveraged riverine routes to perpetrate violence and retreat beyond the immediate reach of conventional security forces,” Vatsa stressed.
However, Niger State Commissioner for Homeland Security, Barrister Maurice Magaji in a telephone interview explained that comprehensive efforts were ongoing to ensure security was in place in Agwara, Borgu and other troubled LGAs in the state.
According to him, “the government would not want to put the lives of its people at risk by rushing to open schools in troubled areas because it has a responsibility to protect lives and properties.
“Life comes before education, let us be calm and as soon as there is calm within a short time, the schools in these troubled areas will be opened in phases,” he told DAILY POST.
