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Gunmen have abducted more than 300 students and teachers in one of the largest collective seizures in recent Nigerian experience, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state came just a short time after armed men stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 young women.

Initial accounts had suggested 227 victims were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a thorough counting process determined that 303 students and 12 educators had been abducted.

The kidnapped pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's total student body of 629.

Government Response and Security Measures

State officials have confirmed that intelligence agencies and police are presently performing a thorough head count to verify the exact number of abducted individuals.

In reaction to the increasing security concerns, the state government has ordered the closure of every schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting similar precautionary actions.

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

President Bola Tinubu has called off international commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on addressing the situation.

Latest Security Events

The educational institution kidnappings constitute the most recent in a sequence of safety incidents that have rocked the country, including an assault on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants killed two individuals and abducted numerous worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the legacy of the large-scale abduction of almost 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a decade ago, with some of those girls still missing.

Firsthand Accounts

In a disturbing recording shared by religious groups, a upset school staff member recounted hearing the noise of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on various gates of the school premises.

"Children were weeping," the witness said, recounting her terror while searching for access to the area where the crying was loudest.

The regional Catholic diocese confirmed that the "attackers acted violently and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through sleeping quarters."

Citizen Reaction and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned guardians were collecting their children from educational institutions following the shutdown directive.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her disbelief at the scale of the kidnapping, asking how 300 students could be abducted simultaneously.

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

Continuing Safety Challenges

For a long time, well-equipped bandit groups have been carrying out killings and kidnappings for money in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While nobody has taken credit for the recent attacks, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently attack schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These gangs maintain bases in extensive forest areas spanning multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

While these bandits have no political motives and are mainly motivated by monetary profit, their growing alliance with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a major cause of concern for officials and experts alike.