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Gunmen have abducted in excess of 300 students and teachers in what appears to be the most significant collective seizures in modern Nigerian history, as reported by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Growing Emergency in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday assault on St Mary's mixed-gender school in Niger state occurred just days after armed men attacked a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, seizing 25 girls.

Initial reports had stated 227 individuals were taken, but updated figures were released after a thorough verification exercise established that 303 pupils and 12 educators had been abducted.

The kidnapped pupils, ranging between eight and 18 years, account for nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Official Response and Security Actions

State officials have announced that security agencies and law enforcement are currently conducting a thorough census to establish the exact number of missing people.

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

Furthermore, the federal education department has directed the temporary shutting of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has called off overseas commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on managing the emergency.

Latest Violent Incidents

The educational institution kidnappings represent the latest in a sequence of security breaches that have rocked the country, including an assault on a place of worship in western Nigeria where assailants killed two people and seized numerous worshipers during a live-streamed service.

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

Historical Background

Nigeria remains traumatized by the legacy of the mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with several of those victims still missing.

Firsthand Accounts

In a concerning recording shared by religious groups, a upset worker described hearing the noise of bikes and cars before experiencing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Students were weeping," the staff member said, describing her terror while searching for keys to the section where the screaming was loudest.

The regional Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and without interruption for nearly three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Public Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried guardians were collecting their students from schools following the closure directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her shock at the scale of the abduction, questioning how 300 students could be abducted simultaneously.

She concluded that the "authorities is not doing enough to combat insecurity," and expressed support for external assistance to "resolve this crisis."

Continuing Safety Issues

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been conducting murders and kidnappings for money in remote areas of northern and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, criminal groups demanding ransom payments often target schools in rural areas where security is inadequate.

These gangs maintain bases in vast forest areas straddling multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

While these criminals have no political motives and are mainly motivated by financial gain, their increasing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of worry for authorities and security analysts alike.