‘They threatened to blow off my crying baby’s head’; how bandits took 289 pupils into Niger forest
‘They threatened to blow off my crying baby’s head’; how bandits took 289 pupils into Niger forest
She came close to death. It was around 1:00 am on Friday the 21st of this month. The pupils, students and staff were deeply asleep when the unwanted visitors stormed the school. There was no helper to rescue her, her husband, her little baby and the pupils put in her care. The bandits gave her only one option: “raise an alarm and you die.”
She had no option than to act the script of the fierce looking and fully armed bandits. Mrs Martha Matthias who is a teacher in the primary section of the missionary owned school- St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri in Agwara Local Government Area of the state came close to death with her husband and baby but eventually survived with her baby. Her husband was however among those who were eventually abducted.
Her account
“At about 1:00 am when we were all asleep at the hostel, I heard the school children crying for help. I wanted to go out to check what was going on but my husband stopped me telling me the school must have been invaded by bandits and I complied. The continuous wailing of the children showed there was serious trouble going on. The noise of the children crying enveloped the whole area and fear gripped everyone of us and nobody could venture to go out on rescue mission.
“After gathering the children together, the bandits now asked them where their parents were and they said their parents were not with them in school. They said they were only staying with their teachers and other staff. Innocently, some of the students led the bandits to the rooms of the teachers and other staff starting from the matron and were ferried away.
“When they eventually came to my own apartment, they ordered my husband to come out of the room and ordered him to lie on the floor while they tied his hands to his back. As they started ransacking our rooms our little child then started crying. They came back to me and ordered me out but my daughter also jumped out of the room insisting to follow me. The bandits then forced her back into the room, pointed a gun at her forehead and threatened to blow off her head. She however continued to shout more until one of the bandits directed me to go and meet her while they used the opportunity to ransack our room. They carted away an unspecified amount of money and other handy valuables with my husband already tortured. It was my closest shave with death in my life. At that moment, I already gave up and said to God, ‘I commit my soul into your hand as I will not deny you at this critical moment’.
“The bandits came with three cars and several motorcycles. I don’t know the brand of cars they came with but I counted three in which some of the students were taken away. I also don’t know the number of the motorbikes they brought, just as I don’t know the number of the bandits that invaded us. But there were many of them and they were fully armed with many motorcycles. Some of the students and staff including my husband were carried away in the vehicles while others were sandwiched between the bandits on motorbikes to another point where we learnt a big truck was waiting which finally ferried them into the forest. I thank God I am alive today to share my sad experience to the whole world”, Mrs Martha Matthias declared”, she narrated.
Residents fleeing
The residents in Papiri and Agwara are becoming restless and agitated as the victims could not be traced till now. It was gathered that some of the residents are already fleeing the areas for fear of reprisal.
239 children, 26 staff members still in captivity
Meanwhile, the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora, Niger state has released the full list of the students and staff of the school still in the forest with their captors. Out of the 265 declared still missing, 239 of them are children in the Nursery and primary section of the school although their ages were not stated.
According to the release, “12 are members of staff of the school, 14 are in the secondary classes while 239 are from the Nursery/Primary section making a total of 265 still with the bandits. Our correspondent gathered that till now, the bandits are yet to open up any conversation with the school authority, parents or any government officials thereby making the exact location of the abductors unknown.
Meet the victims
It will be recalled that between last Friday and Saturday, 50 of the students managed to escape as they were being taken into the forest. A breakdown made by our correspondent according to the list of the pupils and students officially provided who are still missing shows that 7 are in nursery 1; 32 in nursery 2; 62 in primary 1; 45 in primary 2; 32 in primary 3; 26 in primary 4; 19 are in primary 5 while the other 16 are in secondary section thereby making the incident more pathetic especially with the ages of those involved.
It is not yet known whether these children and other victims are still in the forest within Niger state or already ferried out to other neighbouring states or outside the shores of Nigeria since Agwara shares borders with some neighboring countries. No group has also claimed to be responsible for the abduction or demanded any amount as ransom till now.
Bandits’ first attempt to invade the school
In 2022, there was an attempt by bandits to attack the school but the school was immediately shut down to avoid any calamity. The Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese who is also proprietor of the school and CAN Chairman in the state, Most Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohana who confirmed the first attempt said, “In 2022 when we heard of rumours of security challenge, we did not hesitate to shut down the school immediately”.
He refuted the allegation made by the state government of refusing to close down the school despite the official letter written to the school in that respect and described the allegation as mere “propaganda and attempt to shift blame”. He said, “we did not receive any circular; it must be an afterthought and a way to shift blame. In 2022 when we heard of rumours of a security challenge, we did not hesitate, we shut down immediately. Is it when there is a circular from the government asking us to shut down especially on security that we will now not obey? We are law abiding and we will not kick against orders from constituted authorities especially on what borders on security,” the CAN Chairman declared.
What attracted bandits to the area
Between New Bussa, headquarters of Borgu Local Government Area of the state and Agwara, Banana and other towns which share borders with Benin Republic is the National Park which is a thick forest covering vast land and which had been serving as hideouts to the terrorists. Similarly, there are mineral resources in the area which attracted the bandits to the area. Few months ago, a terrorist kingpin, Mahmud was arrested by a combination of the state police command and DSS and flown to Abuja for profiling.
The Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Muhammad Haliru Dantoro Kitoro IV had earlier lamented that the bandits had been using the forest in the area as their hideout and called for the immediate intervention of the government at all levels. “Bandits have taken over the Borgu forest and I hereby appeal to the state and federal governments to reclaim it and use it for more viable projects,” the Emir suggested.
Read Also: Obasanjo urges citizens to pray for Nigerian leaders amid…
Similarly, the state Governor, Muhammed Umaru Bago at different times advocated that the area should be deforested. “It is time to deforest the area and crop it because the entire Kainji forest is about 600,000 hectares with 98 dams and a lake, and this is good for food security,” Bago declared.
Gov asks residents to defend themselves
On Wednesday the 22nd of October, Governor Bago called on residents of Niger state to defend themselves and vowed never to negotiate with bandits or pay ransom to them just as he banned mining activities in 8 local government areas of the state to stem banditry across the state. He made this call and the vow when he visited the people of Rijau and Magma Local Government Areas of the state whose communities were recently attacked by bandits.
“The state has reached a point when the people must stand up to defend themselves because ransom will only turn kidnappings into a thriving business. I will not negotiate with bandits, I will not pay ransom. The moment we start paying, they will open shop on our heads and continue kidnapping. The situation has reached a point of war that requires collective resistance,” the Governor declared. With this declaration by the Chief Security officer of the state, the question now is who is to defend who in this present situation and who will bail out these victims because definitely, ransom must be demanded by the captors of these innocent victims.
Access to the community traumatizing
Papiri is a small enclave and the people who are mostly Christians are predominantly farmers and fishermen. The village borders the Benin Republic and has Agwara as its local government headquarters.
The 2006 national census figures place Agwara local government area with a population of 57,413 but it has now increased to 67,413. In other words, Papiri village in which the school is located is grossly underpopulated with about only 20,000 residents and without any visible attraction than the Catholic School which had been in existence for some years and another LEA primary school.
The Catholic school was the first school to be established in the area before the government primary school. Agwara which is even the local government headquarters has only one primary and secondary school with a very poor road network. Getting to Papiri is through Kontagora to Yauri, Kebbi state junction and to Rofia also in Kebbi state before finally crossing over to Papiri and Agwara by ferry thereby making movement in the area traumatizing. That was why the bandits who must have studied the terrain invaded the area on motorbikes for easy access. VANGUARD
