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Armed attackers have kidnapped over 300 pupils and educators in what is considered the biggest collective seizures in modern Nigerian experience, as reported by a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Emergency in Educational Institutions

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria occurred just a short time after gunmen invaded a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 female students.

Initial accounts had suggested 227 victims were seized, but new numbers surfaced after a thorough verification exercise determined that 303 pupils and 12 instructors had been kidnapped.

The abducted pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, account for nearly half of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Reaction and Safety Measures

State officials have announced that security agencies and law enforcement are presently performing a comprehensive assessment to determine the precise number of missing people.

In response to the increasing safety fears, the state government has directed the closure of every schools in the state, with neighboring states following comparable preventive actions.

Furthermore, the national education department has directed the provisional closure of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

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

Latest Security Incidents

The school kidnappings constitute the latest in a sequence of security breaches that have shaken the country, including an attack on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two individuals and abducted numerous congregation members during a live-streamed service.

These incidents have occurred against the background of global attention on Nigeria's security situation.

Historical Background

Nigeria remains traumatized by the memory of the mass kidnapping of nearly 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a ten years ago, with several of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Accounts

In a disturbing video clip circulated by Christian organizations, a distraught worker described hearing the noise of motorcycles and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on multiple gates of the compound.

"Students were weeping," the staff member stated, recounting her panic while searching for access to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic authority stated that the "attackers acted aggressively and without interruption for almost three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried guardians were picking up their children from schools following the closure order.

One parent, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her disbelief at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 children could be abducted simultaneously.

She stated that the "authorities is not doing enough to combat the security crisis," and expressed support for external assistance to "resolve this crisis."

Ongoing Security Issues

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been conducting murders and kidnappings for ransom in remote areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is minimal.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, criminal groups seeking ransom payments often attack schools in countryside locations where security is weak.

These gangs maintain bases in extensive woodland areas spanning multiple states in western Nigeria.

Although these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly motivated by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a major source of concern for authorities and experts alike.