St Mary’s abductions: Parents lament as 253 remain in captivity

The school was attacked by armed bandits on November 21, when about 315 people, including 303 students and 12 staff members, were abducted and taken into captivity.

A few days later, on November 23, about 50 students escaped and were reunited with their parents, leaving a total of 253 people still in captivity.

The parents, who gathered at the school to register their names as directed by the Niger State Government, pleaded with the state government and relevant stakeholders to help rescue their children and teachers from the clutches of their captors.

Many of the parents, in tears and carrying placards with various inscriptions, decried the continued captivity of the children, saying that so far the state government had yet to visit or send a representative to commiserate with the families.

Some of the inscriptions read: ‘Bring Back Our Girls’, ‘Our Girls and Teachers are still in captivity’, ‘We need security in Agwarra’, and ‘Is education a crime?’

The incident has reportedly resulted in the death of two parents — a male and a female — from shock and trauma, according to a statement issued by the Catholic Bishop of the Kontagora Diocese, Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, who is also the proprietor of the school.

I am devastated, in fact, I am very disturbed that the children up till now are not back yet,” said Sister Blessing Amodu, the sobbing headmistress of the school.

“All I am pleading for at this moment is for the government and all concerned and everyone that is touched by this to please help us to look for ways on how to rescue these children and the staff back to us,” she pleaded.

A parent, Dimas Joseph Mauhuta, whose son, Julius Dimas (JSS 2), is among those abducted, blamed the government for reportedly saying the children were not kidnapped.

We wonder why the state government will say such a thing. The truth is that, my child and others were abducted. The government should stop playing the blame game and act. They should come to our aid instead of saying what is not true,” he said.

Also speaking, Emmanuel Ejeh, whose son, Mathias, was abducted, recalled that his two other children graduated from the school and that it had never experienced such an attack in the past.