Maga, Kebbi State – The quiet town of Maga in Danga Wasagu Local Government Area woke to the sound of gunfire in the pre-dawn darkness of Monday, November 17, 2025. Armed bandits stormed the Government Comprehensive Girls Secondary School, shot dead the Vice Principal, the school’s head of security Yakubu Makuku, and the gateman Ali Shehu, and marched away with dozens of terrified schoolgirls. By Tuesday evening, the Kebbi State Government confirmed that 26 students had initially been taken, but two – Salmat and Hauwa – managed to escape, leaving 24 girls still in captivity.
For Khadijat Lawal, an SS3 student at the school, the memory of that morning will never fade. Speaking through her father, Malam Lawal Altine, who has three daughters at the boarding school, Khadijat recounted how the attack unfolded just minutes before 5 a.m.
“We were all sleeping in the hostel when we heard voices outside and someone trying to force the door open,” she said. Moments later, the bandits began firing into the air. Panicking, Khadijat and her two younger sisters dashed to one of the school’s toilets and locked themselves inside. When the gunmen finally broke into the hostel, her sisters lost their nerve, stepped out of hiding, and were immediately rounded up with other girls. Khadijat stayed silent behind the locked toilet door, too frightened to move.
“I didn’t come out until I heard my father’s voice among the parents who later rushed to the school,” she recounted. “I was lucky, but my two sisters are still missing.”
Malam Altine’s voice cracked as he spoke to journalists: “I am sick with worry. Only God knows where they are and what those people are doing to them.”
Twenty-four hours after the raid, distraught parents remained camped at the school gate, refusing to leave without their children. Hajiya Rani Maga, mother of one of the abducted girls, has not eaten since Monday morning. Tears streaming down her face, she told Daily Trust, “I cannot go home without my daughter. Every minute I think of her in the hands of those wicked people. I don’t know if she has eaten, if she is cold, if she is alive. The government says they are working, but how long will it take? The longer she stays with them, the worse it becomes. I beg the state and federal governments – please bring our children back quickly.”
The attack began around 4 a.m. when bandits forced their way into the quarters of the school’s head of security, Yakubu Makuku. His widow, Amina Hassan, still trembling with shock, described the horror: “We were sleeping when we heard the door being broken. I woke my husband, but he thought it was the goats. Suddenly the men were inside our room with guns. They ordered him to lead them to the girls’ hostel. He refused, and they shot him right there in front of me. I tried to hold him as he fell, but they pushed me away and went straight to the hostels. I heard the girls screaming and crying as they were taken. It feels like a nightmare I cannot wake from.”
The school gateman, Ali Shehu, was also gunned down as the bandits overpowered the minimal security.
Community members say fear now grips the entire area. Abubakar Dabai, a relative of one of the abducted girls’ fathers, said, “Nobody is going to the farm anymore. Everyone is afraid the bandits will return. We are just staying indoors praying. The governor came yesterday and promised more soldiers will be sent to find the girls and protect us. We want to believe him, but right now the whole community is traumatised.”
Aminu Usman Lawal, father of Hauwa – one of the two girls who escaped – said he was preparing to go to his farm when news of the attack reached him. “I still don’t understand why this happened to us,” he said. “But I have faith that Allah will protect my daughter and the others. Since Monday, life has stopped here. People are scared to even step outside their compounds. We beg the government to deploy more security so we can feel safe again and continue our lives.”
Another mother, Fatima Ibrahim, could barely speak through her tears: “I just want my daughter back. Nothing else matters. Please bring her home safe.”
On Tuesday, the Kebbi State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Halimatu Muhammad Bande, addressed the conflicting reports that had circulated in the media. “Let us set the record straight,” she told journalists in Birnin Kebbi. “Twenty-six students were initially abducted. However, two of them – Salmat and Hauwa – escaped from the bandits and have safely returned. That leaves twenty-four girls still in captivity. Misinformation only adds to the pain of the families.”
Dr. Bande assured the public that Governor Nasir Idris, in coordination with federal authorities, has mobilised all available security forces for rescue operations. “Everything humanly possible is being done,” she said. “We do not know the exact location of the girls or what they may be going through, but we are praying fervently for their safe and speedy return.”
As night fell on Tuesday, the school compound – normally filled with the laughter of teenage girls preparing for their final exams – remained eerily silent except for the quiet sobs of parents keeping vigil under the harmattan sky. For the families of the 24 missing students, every passing hour is another hour of anguish, uncertainty, and desperate hope that their daughters will soon be brought home alive.
