By Prosper Mene
Standing against the rising tide of school abductions in Nigeria’s northwest, Senator Garba Maidoki has pledged that the kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls from a Kebbi boarding school will not echo the haunting legacy of the 2014 Chibok tragedy. “This will not be like the Chibok girls,” Maidoki, representing Kebbi South Senatorial District, declared during an emotional visit to the affected community, vowing a rapid and secure return for the students.
The attack occurred in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, November 17, when armed gunmen stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Danko-Wasagu Local Government Area. The assailants, believed to be bandits operating in the region’s dense forests, killed Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku in cold blood, injured a school guard, and herded the terrified girls from their dormitories into the darkness. The school, a beacon of education for girls in this remote agrarian community, was left in chaos, with families now clinging to fragile hopes amid the acrid smell of gunpowder and grief.
Maidoki, visibly shaken, described the incident as “the most unfortunate week of my life” during a Channels Television interview.He revealed that security forces have a “fair idea” of the girls’ location, confined within the Kebbi South Senatorial District, and commended the Nigerian Armed Forces for their relentless pursuit. “They are right now in the forest,” he said, noting reports of seven soldiers wounded in clashes with the abductors just hours earlier. “There is high hope that these girls will be returned in the next one or two days.”
The full list of abducted students, released by Danko-Wasagu Local Government Chairman Hussaini Aliyu to counter misinformation, includes young women from junior and senior secondary classes: Fatima Sani Zimri, Hafsat Ibrahim, Nana Firdausi Jibril, Masauda Yakubu Romo, Hauwa Saleh, Hauwau Umar Imam, Salima Garba Umar, Salima Sani Zimri, Amina G. Umar, Rashida Muhammad Dingu, Saliha Umar, Aisha Usman, Jamila Iliyasu, Maryam Illiyasu, Najaatu Abdullahi, Zainab Kolo, Surraya Tukur, Hafsat Umar Yalmo, Maryam Usman, Amina Illiyasu, Ikilima Suleman, Khadija Nazifi, Hauwau Iliyasu, Hauwau Lawali, and one unnamed student. Amid the anguish, glimmers of relief emerged: At least two girls escaped the clutches of their captors during the chaos, one returning home safely and the other confirmed unharmed shortly after.
President Bola Tinubu swiftly condemned the assault, directing Vice President Kashim Shettima to visit Kebbi and console the families on his behalf, while assuring the nation’s full commitment to the girls’ safe recovery. The Senate, erupting in bipartisan fury during Tuesday’s session, passed resolutions demanding urgent national security action, including an investigation into the underutilized Safe School Initiative Fund—a program meant to fortify educational institutions but plagued by questions of accountabiliy. Senator Adamu Aliero Abdullahi (Kebbi Central) labeled the raid a “slap in the face to our nation,” recalling a similar 2022 Kebbi abduction that dragged on for four agonizing years before resolution.
This latest horror revives painful memories of April 14, 2014, when Boko Haram insurgents seized 276 girls from Chibok, Borno State, in a mass kidnapping that ignited global outrage and the #BringBackOurGirls movement. Over a decade later, more than 80 Chibok girls remain unaccounted for, their plight a stark symbol of Nigeria’s enduring battle with insecurity.bab63b Northwest Nigeria, once spared the Islamist insurgency’s full fury, now grapples with banditry-fueled chaos, where armed gangs on motorcycles target schools for ransom, sowing fear and disrupting education. Just last March, over 200 pupils were freed from a Kaduna school after a similar ordeal.
As troops comb the surrounding forests under the directive of Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu—who emphasized that “success is not optional”—communities in Maga huddle in prayer vigils. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) joined the chorus of condemnation on International Students’ Day, urging an end to the “barbaric” assaults on learning.
Maidoki’s defiance cuts through the despair: “We will not allow this to become another Chibok.” For the families of Maga, those words are a lifeline in the shadows.
