Two schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State, have escaped from their captors, local authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Hussaini Aliyu of the Danko-Wasagu Council told the BBC that the girls managed to slip away while the armed kidnappers were leading them into the bush.
“The girls are back and are safe,” he said, adding that one of them sustained a leg injury during the escape and required medical attention.
At least 25 students and a teacher were seized during Monday’s dawn attack. The gunmen, described locally as bandits, stormed the boarding school around 4 a.m., shooting sporadically.
A teacher was killed while trying to shield the girls, while a security guard later died in the hospital from gunshot wounds. The fallen guard’s family has been left devastated.
The guard who was killed had both a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter enrolled at the school; both are among those abducted.
His daughter told the BBC, “I found him in his pool of blood. Then they took my daughter and also my granddaughter.”
She said she had been unable to sleep or eat since the attack.
Parents In Agony As Search Operations Intensify
Parents of the kidnapped girls remain in a state of anguish as military, police, and local volunteers comb forested areas in search of the victims.
One distraught father, whose daughter is still missing, said his family had been crying nonstop.
“It’s hard to go back home and look at their faces,” he said.
He revealed that both his daughters had initially hidden in the school toilet during the raid.
“When the gunmen ordered those hiding to come out or be killed, one of my daughters got scared and came out,” he said. The other remained hidden and survived.
© 2025 Naijaonpoint, a division of NOP Media Inc. Contact us via [email protected]