Fresh hope returned to Kebbi State on Tuesday as the 24 schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Maga, were rescued after days in captivity.
Reliable officials familiar with the development confirmed that the girls were freed earlier in the day and are currently being conveyed to the Government House in Birnin Kebbi. They are expected to undergo medical examinations and formal debriefing upon arrival.
According to a senior government source, “The girls have been freed. They are on their way to the State House,” signalling the end of an anxious wait for families and residents.
Early details from security operatives suggest the rescue followed an intensified joint offensive involving the military, police units, vigilante groups and intelligence teams operating across several forest routes used by criminal gangs.
The schoolgirls were taken during a pre-dawn raid last week, when armed attackers invaded their boarding school and whisked them into nearby bush paths. Their abduction happened just days before more than 300 pupils and teachers were kidnapped from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State — a double blow that triggered outrage nationwide.
The two incidents revived grim memories of previous mass abductions in Chibok, Dapchi, Kankara, Jangebe and Yauri, reinforcing long-standing fears about the vulnerability of schools, particularly girls’ institutions, across northern Nigeria.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu ordered an expanded security dragnet across Kebbi, Niger and Kwara States, along with continuous aerial surveillance by the Nigerian Air Force to identify and disrupt kidnap networks operating in deep forest hideouts.
