Mass Abduction Tally Rises to 303 Pupils and 12 Teachers in Niger State Catholic School, Confirms CAN

The national security crisis deepened today, Saturday, November 22, 2025, after the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) confirmed that the total number of schoolchildren abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Niger State has risen to an alarming 303, alongside 12 teachers. This total of 315 abducted persons makes the incident one of the most severe mass school kidnappings in Nigeria since the 2014 Chibok tragedy.

The new, devastating figure was released by the Niger State CAN Chairman and Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese, Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, who personally visited the school in the remote Papiri community on Friday.

“After a verification exercise and a final census was carried out, we discovered that 88 more students were also captured after they tried to escape during the attack,” Bishop Yohanna stated, explaining the upward revision from an earlier tally of 215. “This now makes it 303 students (male and female, aged 10 to 18) and 12 teachers.”

Controversy Over Warning and Closure

The mass abduction, which occurred in the early hours of Friday, has ignited a fresh political row. Bishop Yohanna publicly refuted a claim by the Niger State Government that the school was warned to close down due to prior security intelligence. The Bishop called the government’s statement a “propaganda” move designed to shift blame.

In response to the escalating threat, Niger State Governor Umar Bago held an emergency security meeting in Minna today, announcing the immediate closure of all schools in the state and declaring an early Christmas holiday as a mandatory security measure.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government, already grappling with the mass abduction of 25 girls in Kebbi State earlier this week, has deployed tactical squads and local hunters to the area in a frantic effort to locate and secure the release of the children and their teachers. The inability of authorities to prevent two major mass abductions in one week highlights the extreme vulnerability of educational institutions in North-Central and North-West Nigeria.