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Gunmen have seized more than 300 students and teachers in what is considered the most significant collective seizures in modern Nigerian history, according to a religious organization on the weekend.

Growing Crisis in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria came just days after gunmen invaded a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, seizing 25 girls.

Initial accounts had stated 227 victims were seized, but new numbers emerged after a comprehensive counting process determined that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

The abducted students, aged between eight and 18 years, account for nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Reaction and Security Actions

State officials have stated that intelligence departments and law enforcement are currently conducting a thorough assessment to establish the precise number of missing people.

In reaction to the increasing safety fears, the local authorities has mandated the shutting of every schools in the region, with neighboring states following comparable precautionary measures.

Furthermore, the national education department has directed the provisional shutting of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

President Bola Tinubu has called off international commitments, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on handling the situation.

Recent Security Events

The educational institution kidnappings constitute the most recent in a series of safety breaches that have shaken the country, including an attack on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants killed two individuals and abducted dozens worshipers during a online broadcast service.

These incidents have occurred against the backdrop of international attention on Nigeria's safety situation.

Past Background

Nigeria continues to be scarred by the legacy of the mass kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a ten years ago, with several of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Accounts

In a concerning video clip shared by religious organizations, a distraught worker described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Children were crying," the witness said, describing her fear while searching for access to the area where the crying was most intense.

The regional Catholic diocese confirmed that the "assailants operated aggressively and uninterrupted for almost three hours, moving through sleeping quarters."

Citizen Reaction and Fears

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned parents were picking up their children from schools following the closure order.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the magnitude of the abduction, asking how 300 students could be abducted at once.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to combat the security crisis," and voiced approval for external intervention to "resolve this crisis."

Continuing Safety Issues

For a long time, well-equipped criminal gangs have been conducting murders and kidnappings for money in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is minimal.

While no group has taken credit for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding ransom payments often attack schools in rural areas where protection is weak.

These groups maintain camps in vast forest areas spanning several states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these criminals have no political motives and are mainly driven by financial gain, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major cause of worry for officials and security analysts alike.