A primary-section teacher of the missionary-owned St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, Mrs Martha Matthias, on Friday narrated how she and her family survived a bandit attack that struck the school around 1:00 a.m. on November 21.
According to the teacher, the attackers barged into the school while pupils, students and staff were fast asleep.
Narrating the moment she nearly lost her life, the teacher said the bandits made their intentions clear from the start.
Mrs Matthias said she had no option but to obey, adding that she acted out the commands of the intimidating armed men to secure her child’s safety.
While she escaped with her baby, her husband, Godfrey Matthias, was among the 24 people abducted during the Papiri raid.
According to Mrs Matthias, “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 all of us; nobody could venture to go out on a 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 on following 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 with the whole world”, Mrs Martha Matthias declared.”
© 2025 Naijaonpoint, a division of NOP Media Inc. Contact us via [email protected]