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Gunmen have abducted in excess of 300 students and teachers in what is considered the largest collective seizures in recent Nigerian history, according to a Christian organization on the weekend.

Growing Emergency in School Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria happened just a short time after armed men invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 young women.

Initial reports had suggested 227 individuals were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a thorough verification exercise established that 303 students and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

The abducted pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Response and Security Actions

State authorities have stated that intelligence agencies and law enforcement are currently performing a comprehensive assessment to establish the precise number of abducted individuals.

In response to the growing security concerns, the state government has mandated the shutting of all schools in the state, with nearby states adopting comparable precautionary steps.

Additionally, the federal education ministry has directed the provisional shutting of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas commitments, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on handling the crisis.

Recent Violent Events

The educational institution kidnappings represent the latest in a series of security breaches that have rocked the country, including an attack on a church in western Nigeria where gunmen killed two people and seized numerous congregation members during a live-streamed service.

These incidents have taken place against the background of global attention on Nigeria's safety situation.

Past Context

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the large-scale abduction of almost 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 Testimonies

In a concerning video clip shared by religious groups, a upset employee described hearing the noise of bikes and cars before hearing "violent banging" on multiple entrances of the school premises.

"Students were weeping," the witness said, recounting her panic while searching for keys to the area where the crying was loudest.

The regional Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and without interruption for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Response and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, worried guardians were collecting their students from schools following the closure order.

One mother, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her shock at the magnitude of the abduction, asking how 300 students could be taken simultaneously.

She stated that the "authorities is failing to act to address the security crisis," and expressed approval for international intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Security Challenges

For a long time, well-equipped criminal gangs have been conducting killings and abductions for ransom in remote areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While no group has taken credit for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding ransom payments often target schools in rural areas where security is weak.

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

While these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of worry for authorities and experts alike.