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Gunmen have seized in excess of 300 pupils and educators in one of the most significant collective seizures in recent Nigerian experience, as reported by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Escalating Emergency in School Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria came just days after gunmen attacked a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls.

Earlier accounts had indicated 227 victims were seized, but new figures surfaced after a comprehensive verification exercise confirmed that 303 pupils and 12 instructors had been abducted.

The abducted pupils, ranging between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's overall student population of 629.

Official Response and Security Actions

Local authorities have stated that intelligence departments and police are currently conducting a comprehensive census to verify the precise number of missing people.

In response to the growing security fears, the local authorities has mandated the shutting of all schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting similar precautionary actions.

Additionally, the national education ministry has directed the temporary shutting of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on handling the crisis.

Latest Security Incidents

The educational institution abductions constitute the latest in a sequence of security breaches that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a place of worship in western Nigeria where assailants killed two people and abducted dozens congregation members during a live-streamed service.

These events have occurred against the background of global attention on Nigeria's safety situation.

Historical Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the memory of the large-scale kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a decade ago, with several of those girls still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning recording shared by Christian groups, a distraught school staff member described hearing the noise of bikes and vehicles before experiencing "forceful banging" on multiple entrances of the school premises.

"Children were weeping," the witness reported, recounting her terror while searching for keys to the section where the crying was loudest.

The local Catholic diocese confirmed that the "assailants acted aggressively and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried guardians were collecting their children from schools following the shutdown directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the scale of the abduction, asking how 300 children could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to address the security crisis," and voiced support for international intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Security Issues

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been carrying out murders and abductions for ransom in remote areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, criminal groups seeking ransom payments frequently target schools in countryside locations where security is inadequate.

These gangs maintain bases in vast forest areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

While these bandits have no ideological leanings and are mainly motivated by financial gain, their increasing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major source of concern for officials and experts alike.