Uncertainty Persists Over Number of Abducted Students Due to Incomplete School Records

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has disclosed that security agencies are fully aware of the identities and locations of the bandit groups responsible for recent mass abductions, including the attack on Saint Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, in Niger State.

Onanuga made the disclosure during a televised interview, stressing that the government cannot simply launch airstrikes on the identified enclaves. According to him, although security operatives have the necessary intelligence, their operations are often constrained by the risk of collateral damage to civilians being held by the bandits.

He added that uncertainty persists about the exact number of recently abducted students because neither the school nor the Niger State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has provided complete records.