Picnews
Kebbi State Governor Mohammed Nasir Idris arrived at Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga around 6:45 p.m. on Monday, his face a mix of anger and disappointment, and he didn’t mince words when he told the crowd that the tragedy could have been averted. He said his administration had received credible intelligence from the Department of State Services warning that the school was a likely target, and that the DSS had even advised an emergency Security Council meeting, after which a decision was taken to provide round‑the‑clock protection for the students .
Instead of staying on alert, the heavily armed security detail that had spent the night guarding the premises apparently spent the evening taking photographs with the pupils and conducting drills, only to abandon their posts about thirty minutes before the attackers struck, leaving the school vulnerable
The assault happened in the early hours of Monday, when gunmen stormed the campus, shot the vice‑principal dead and seized 25 female students, though three managed to break free and crawl to safety. Governor Idris described the lapse as “clear sabotage,” accusing unnamed security agencies of frustrating his administration’s efforts and of failing to act on intelligence that could have prevented the kidnapping.
He announced the formation of a special investigation panel, to be chaired by the State Director of the DSS, tasked with uncovering how the warning was ignored and coordinating the rescue of the abducted girls ¹ ³. The governor also reminded listeners of the 2020 Kankara kidnapping in Katsina State, where over 300 pupils were taken because similar intelligence was not acted upon, underscoring the gravity of the current failure.
In the hours after the attack, the governor visited the school, met with security chiefs, and expressed hope that the girls were still alive, noting that there was “sufficient reason to believe that the girls were kidnapped, not killed” and that ongoing federal and state efforts would secure their safe return
He called on all security agencies to set aside partisan interests, warning that politicising insecurity only deepens the crisis and harms the image of Kebbi ¹. As the search continues, the governor’s appeal for unity and swift action resonates across the state, where residents are left grappling with the shock of yet another school attack and the urgent need for a more reliable security framework.
