By Umar Sani Daura
The recent mass abduction from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, has been marred by a concerning lack of consensus regarding the total number of students and staff taken, and subsequently, the number of those who have since escaped. Statements from the Niger State Governor’s office and the school’s proprietor—a representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)—have offered diverging figures, creating confusion amidst a period of high anxiety for the nation.
The proprietor of the Catholic institution, Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna (Chairman of CAN in Niger State), has maintained specific figures based on the school’s verification exercise.
CAN claimed a total of 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were abducted (315 total).
However, the statement detailing their process noted that the verification “included tracking students who tried to escape during the attack” before concluding that 303 students “were abducted.” This phrasing suggests an inherent ambiguity:
”Tried to escape” implies that some students were initially missing, scattered, or running away in panic, rather than being physically seized by the bandits.
The subsequent confirmation that the entire group of 303 students “were abducted” fails to differentiate between those who were forcibly taken and those who were only missing and later accounted for. This semantic leap is precisely what the Governor’s office challenged, contributing to the government’s initial classification of the incident as “a scare and of missing people.”
Rev. Yohanna subsequently confirmed that 50 pupils escaped captivity and were reunited with their families, based on tracking these students down at their homes.
Based on the school’s count, this leaves approximately 253 schoolchildren and 12 teachers still held hostage. But to think of it, why the hurry to conclude that 253 schoolchildren & 12 teachers still remain held hostage? How did the school authorities arrived at the conclusion that the above figure are held in hostage? what if they are not held hostage but somewhere else for their safety?
Governor Umaru Bago’s response has focused on the need for verified, official data and a critique of the school’s management of the crisis aftermath.
The Governor characterized the initial incident as a “scare and of missing people rather than a kidnapping,” arguing that the school’s figures were premature and not supported by initial intelligence.
Governor Bago acknowledged the school’s claim that 50 students had escaped but raised critical questions regarding the lack of official protocol:
Lack of State Involvement/Medical Examination: He questioned why the State Government was not involved in the reunification process, which meant the escapees could not be immediately taken to hospitals for medical examination and psycho-social support to address trauma.
The Governor announced that the State Government had opened an official register for parents whose children were abducted to come and formally write down the names, indicating that compliance with this process would be the official basis for the government’s count.
The Governor’s office maintained that the school had failed to comply with a prior security directive to close all boarding schools in the area, a claim that the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora explicitly denied.
The Governor’s directive for parents to comply with the official register—requiring detailed information like student names and parent contact details—is the standard operational procedure aimed at resolving the ambiguities raised by the school’s verification method.
The ambiguity clearly needs to be clearly distinguish between students who were abducted (forcibly seized) and those who were merely missing (fled during the panic).
Coordinate Medical Care & Debriefing can aid at easily contacting and retrieving the 50 escaped students for immediate medical examination and psychological trauma therapy.
To ascertain the truth, it is very important to conduct confidential interviews with the escapees. This post-trauma therapy debriefing would be crucial in determining if their accounts speak with one voice or present divergent claims, thereby officially ascertaining the truth regarding the face-off and conflicting figures between the State Government and the school management.
It is my personal believe that the school’s action of using its own verification method and reuniting the 50 students directly with their families, while addressing the immediate need of parents, effectively bypassed the institutional framework required for official verification, aftercare, and intelligence gathering—which is the core of the government’s operational challenge and its justification for questioning the numbers.
