Exactly seven days after over 300 students were abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, bandits have launched another deadly attack in Palaita community, Erena Ward, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. They abducted 24 people, including a pregnant woman, from a rice farm and chopped off the hand of a blind man.
However, the Police said 10 people were kidnapped.
The bandits also attacked a community in Abuja, and kidnapped six girls and a boy.
This happened as the Diocese of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, announced that Venerable Edwin Achi, Priest-in-Charge of Ebenezer Anglican Church, Ungwan Maijero, who was abducted on October 28, had died in kidnappers. The incident prompted the cancellation of the much-anticipated ‘Stand Up for Jesus 2025’ event.
Meanwhile, Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, yesterday, declared that the armed forces were closing in on eliminating bandits terrorising parts of the country, despite the recent resurgence of school abductions.
Coming on a day that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, disclosed that 11,566 Police personnel withdrawn from VIP duties had been redeployed to under-served communities, Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan, urged the Federal Government to ensure quick solution to internal insecurity by adequately equipping officers on ground rather than relying on recruiting 20,000 policemen.
How bandits kidnapped 24 in Niger
A source in the community said the attackers struck at about 2:00pm on Wednesday while residents were harvesting their crops.
Despite Palaita being only five kilometres from a military base in Erena, the bandits reportedly escaped with the victims before security personnel could respond.
In a separate incident earlier that day, another group of armed men invaded the Kakuru community, also in Erena Ward, brutalised a blind resident and severed his right hand after taking a mobile phone from him.
It was gathered that the bandits invaded a farmland in Palaita community, Erena Ward in Shiroro LGA where farmers were harvesting their rice and whisked the workers and pregnant woman away.
The invasion and abduction of the farmers happened at 2pm without any hindrance.
The bandits were said to have driven straight to the farm, started shooting sporadically, rounded up the victims and fled before the arrival of the military to the scene.
“From all indications, it seems the bandits had a mission and the mission was to dislodge the farmers and take them away. They were said to have driven straight to the farm, started shooting and by the time the farmers knew what was happening, they had been rounded up and led to mount waiting motorcycles and taken away.
“We are not sure the exact destination they were taken to and no communication has been opened up between the bandits, and the immediate families of those affected or any other contacts,” a community source, who wanted anonymity, declared.
Also in another community called Kakuru in the same Erena ward, bandits were said to have chopped off the right hand of a blind man for not “cooperating” with them when asked some “vital” questions.
It was learned that the bandits met the blind man at home and wanted to collect the mobile phone they saw with him.
“The bandits arrived at the community at about 8:00am, met only the blind man at home because other residents of the community had gone to their farms.
“Not knowing who they are because of his sight, he explained to the gunmen that the mobile phone does not belong to him, saying the owner had gone to the farm.
“This refusal did not go down well with them. After collecting the phone forcefully from him, one of the bandits ordered that his right hand be chopped off for refusing to cooperate with them, and it was done immediately,” the source disclosed.
According to him, the victim was immediately given first aid treatment in the town but added that his whereabouts is unknown yet.
Confirming the attacks, the state police command said 10 persons were reportedly abducted in the area.
10 persons were abducted — Police
Spokesman of the Command, Superintendent of Police, Wasiu Abiodun in a terse statement said:
“On November 26, 2025 at about 8pm, report received indicated that suspected armed men abducted about 10 persons from Angwan-Kawo and Kuchipa villages of Shiroro Local Govt Area and effort is being made to rescue the victims,”
Bandits kidnap six girls, a boy in FCT
In Abuja, exactly one week after a police officer was shot dead in the Guto area of Bwari, bandits launched yet another violent attack, abducting six young girls and a 16-year-old boy during a night raid on Gidan-Bijimi, a settlement in Kawu ward on the fringes of Bwari Area Council.
Kawu shares a boundary with Kaduna State and lies close to the Gidan Dogo and Kweti forests – areas long regarded as transit routes and hideouts for criminal gangs operating along the FCT–Kaduna corridor.
Gidan-Bijimi itself sits near Marke village on the same boundary, a zone that has witnessed renewed criminal activity in recent months.
The latest assault occurred around 9:47pm on Wednesday, throwing the quiet community into chaos as the gunmen, armed with AK-47 rifles, invaded two homes and fired repeatedly into the air before escaping with their captives.
The incident comes on the heels of last Wednesday’s attack on Guto, another boundary community in Bwari, where the Federal Capital Territory Police Command reported that 30 armed men stormed the area to kidnap a resident and his family. Two terrorists were reportedly neutralized in the Guto incident while a policeman lost his life.
In the latest attacks, a resident of Kawu, Suleiman Shuaibu, who confirmed the Gidan-Bijimi abductions, said the girls taken were between 17 and 23 years old.
He said he got a call around 9:53pm from Gidan-Bijimi that bandits had invaded the village. “They abducted six young girls. Unfortunately, my cousin-sister is among the victims,” he explained, adding that a teenage boy was also seized.
Shuaibu said members of the local vigilance group attempted to confront the attackers but were forced to retreat due to the bandits’ superior firepower.
He added that several residents fled into surrounding bushes, while others remained indoors until daylight. As of Thursday morning, there had been no contact from the kidnappers, and the police had yet to officially confirm the incident.
The abduction deepens concerns over the steadily deteriorating security situation in Bwari Area Council. The attacks have triggered renewed calls for strengthened security across communities bordering Kaduna and Niger states – long considered soft entry points for armed groups creeping toward the capital.
In response to rising anxieties, the Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA on Wednesday announced fresh security measures following an expanded meeting of the FCT Security Council chaired by the Minister, Nyesom Wike.
FCT Commissioner of Police, Miller Dantawaye, who briefed journalists after the meeting, said the council had fully activated Operation Sweep, a multi-agency security operation recently reorganised to respond more effectively to emerging threats.
According to him, the operation has been restructured into four major sectors covering Gwagwalada, Bwari, and two wide corridors across the city centre—stretching from Berger and Wuse through Karu, Mararaba, Karshi, and Orozo. He added that the minister has provided “adequate logistics” to enable the joint deployment of personnel from the police, military, DSS, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, FRSC, Immigration Service, Correctional Service and other FCT-based agencies.
Despite these measures, Wednesday night’s abduction underscores the persistent vulnerability of remote communities and the growing boldness of armed groups testing the limits of the government’s security response.