Gunmen in the early hours of Monday launched a deadly assault on Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, killing the school’s vice principal and abducting 25 female students.
The attackers, armed with rifles and executing what authorities described as a coordinated operation, stormed the boarding school around 4 a.m., engaging police personnel in a fierce gun duel before breaching the perimeter fence and whisking the students away.
Kebbi State Police spokesperson, Nafiu Abubakar Kotarkoshi, confirmed that Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku was shot dead while attempting to repel the assailants. Another staff member also sustained gunshot injuries during the attack.
Police said additional tactical teams, soldiers and local vigilante groups have been deployed to sweep suspected hideouts and surrounding forest areas as part of an ongoing search-and-rescue mission.
The attack adds to the alarming pattern of mass kidnappings plaguing Nigeria’s northwest, where well-armed criminal gangs routinely raid villages, schools and highways in pursuit of ransom payments. The region has remained a hotspot for insecurity despite several government assurances of strengthened security operations.
Northwest school abductions have become a recurring tragedy over the years, drawing comparisons to the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of 270 Chibok schoolgirls, many of whom remain missing more than a decade later.
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Egalitarian Voice will continue to monitor developments and provide updates as the situation unfolds.
