One of the 25 female students abducted from a secondary school in Kebbi State has managed to escape and is now safe, officials confirmed on Tuesday as combined security forces and armed hunters widened their search for the remaining missing girls.
The students were seized during a pre-dawn raid on Monday when armed assailants stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, a quiet community in the Sakaba area of the state.
Authorities say the joint rescue team is working urgently to track the captors and recover the girls.
A security source involved in the operation stressed the government’s stance: “We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional.”
Residents in Maga recounted the terrifying early-morning attack.
Abdulkarim Abdullahi, who lives near the school, said he awoke to the sound of heavy gunfire.
“I just heard gunshots suddenly from the school area,” he recalled. “People later told us the attackers rode into the compound on many motorcycles.”
Among the casualties of the attack was the school’s vice principal, Hassan Yakubu Makuku.
His wife, Amina Hassan, described how the gunmen singled him out.
“Three of them came in and asked, ‘Are you Malam Hassan?’ When he said yes, they told him, ‘We are here to kill you,’” she narrated in tears.
Responding to the tragedy, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday dispatched Vice President
Kashim Shettima to Kebbi State to console the grieving families and reassure them of the government’s commitment to rescuing the girls without delay.
Although independent details of the rescue efforts remain limited as of Tuesday night, security operations are reportedly ongoing in the forest areas surrounding Sakaba and nearby communities.
The kidnapping adds to a troubling trend of violent attacks across northern Nigeria, where criminal gangs have repeatedly targeted schools, commuters, and rural settlements. The remaining abducted schoolgirls are still missing, and the rescue mission continues.
