By Jimmy Arch
The Senate urged the Federal Government to save the children after gunmen killed a teacher and kidnapped at least 25 pupils at Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, in the northwest on November 17, 2025. Senators denounced the escalating attacks on schools during the plenary session and urged President Bola Tinubu to approve the urgent hiring of 100,000 more staff who are properly trained and prepared to handle the nation’s growing security issues.
In order to look into the Safe School Program’s funding, expenses, and the reasons behind its failure to successfully secure schools, the Senate also decided to form an Ad Hoc Committee including members from the Finance, Education, Defense, Army, and Navy committees.
Since 2009, Nigeria’s security situation has been worse. The abduction of youngsters for ransom is a very serious trend that has resulted from this. In recent years, many students in northern Nigeria have been kidnapped from their basic, secondary, and university institutions. In order to pay the ransom, parents and school officials have sold their belongings.
• Dozens of pupils were slain when gunmen attacked a school in February 2014. At night, the attackers broke into a boarding house.
• 286 schoolgirls were taken hostage when Boko Haram terrorists stormed Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014. Over 80 of them remain unaccounted for to this day.
• Leah Sharibu was one of 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) during an attack on the Girls Science and Technical School in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018.
• On December 13, 2020, bandits stormed Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State, seizing 344 boys. The youngsters were finally freed from their captivity in Zamfara State’s Rugu Forest.
• Bandits stormed the Federal Government College in Kebbi State, capturing around 80 pupils and five professors. For each of the pupils who were abducted, they demanded a million naira.
• Over 279 pupils from Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara State, were kidnapped on February 26, 2021, and released on March 2, 2021.
• On March 11, 2021, 39 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in Kaduna were taken into custody by gunmen. After paying the ransom, they were released on September 29 after being detained in the wilderness for two months.
• 140 kids from Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna were abducted by armed bandits, who demanded 500,000 Naira from each of them. They released 28 of their prisoners on July 25.
• In Kagara, Niger State, armed gunmen abducted 15 officials and 27 pupils.
• In May 2021, 136 pupils were abducted from Tegina, Niger State’s Salihu Tanko Islamiya School by gunmen who wanted N100 million in exchange for their release. They were released in batches based on the method of payment.
• Ninety-one of the pupils were freed on August 27; however, one of them, a six-year-old, passed away while in custody. Prior to their release, the bandits allegedly got N70 million.
• During morning lectures at Kaya Day Secondary School in Zamfara on September 1, 2021, bandits broke in and took 73 students—including teachers—to an unidentified location. The state administration responded by closing all of the state’s schools.
• In a separate raid, gunmen kidnapped 140 students from Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna and demanded 500,000 naira from each of them (Omuya, 2023).
• 286 students and teachers were reportedly taken captive during a bandit raid on LEA Primary School in Kuriga, Kaduna, on March 7, 2024.
• In March 2024, the federal government declared that schools in the Federal Capital Territory and 14 states were at risk of bandit and insurgent attacks.
In response to public and parental demand, the governors of the northern states have frequently closed schools as the security situation in the area worsened. Following the kidnapping of 140 Baptist students, the administration of Kaduna State closed 13 schools. The governor of Zamfara ordered the temporary closure of all schools in the state after 73 students were abducted from a school in 2021.
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