The Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar III, has expressed shock at the abduction of students of the Government Girls' Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS), Maga, in Danko-Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
Sultan said the government must spare no effort to immediately return all abducted schoolgirls of Maga, and the remaining Dapchi and Chibok girls in captivity and other places.
JNI secretary-general, Prof. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, in a statement, called on North-Central state governors to be on red alert, as the criminals are heading towards the zone.
The statement said the school girls' abduction was a most potent action to frustrate girl-child education in Northern Nigeria, despite the many enrollment campaign efforts for female education.
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"No parent will now be comfortable, especially in our local environments, to allow their daughters to go to such callously unprotected schools. And the North is the loser! Therefore, this is a wakeup call to the quiescent northern governors."
While commiserating with the families of the slain Vice-Principal of the school and parents of the Maga girls' victims, JNI said it was high time security was provided to all girls' schools (boarding and non-boarding).
The statement noted that the attack came barely days after a security summit in Birnin-Kebbi on Monday, 10th November, 2025.
It reads in part: "This tragic and heartless but avoidable recurring abduction of school girls remains utterly condemnable in its entirety, especially that it is coming after several similar incidents of Chibok, Dapchi, then Kankara, Kagara and now Maga!
"Ordinarily and ethically, the school abduction should have been thwarted, because, expectedly, security surveillance ought to have been adequately provided within the radius of the school, to avert such abductions. This is too much to bear on the parents"
JNI said it had noted a lack of synergy between security operatives in Kebbi State, noted that just recently the Deputy Speaker of the Kebbi State House of Assembly was abducted and released after ransom was allegedly paid
It went on: "We are genuinely worried, because in recent years of these repeated kidnappings and/or abductions, criminals brazenly act unchallenged.
"With nostalgia, discerning minds could recall that the Chibok abduction happened in a similar commando style, as reported in Maga, just as it happened in Dapchi. Yet we are visited with another tragic schoolgirl's abduction. Is the Chibok and Dapchi school girls' debacle, so long ago in our memory, that we have not learnt anything from it? Furthermore, is this abduction not a near confirmation of the rumour doing the rounds that security operatives seem to be naïve in ending the diabolical insecurity debacle?"
JNI called on the government at all levels to do everything possible to return Maga, Dapchi and Chibok schoolgirls in full.
"It is time for decisive action, no more rhetoric. Enough should be enough!" it declared.
The JNI directed Nigerian Muslims, particularly Imams, to commence Qunootun-Nawazil (special prayers at calamitous periods in the last Rak'at of each obligatory prayer and non-obligatory prayers) to seek Allah's intervention on all forms of adversities in Nigeria, including the US threat.
"North-Central state governors should be on the red alert, as the criminals are crawling towards the Zone, with North-East having witnessed two of such school girls' abduction and the now North-West with the Maga episode, the North-Central states with mangrove trees and/or thick forests should do more than paying lip services to security matters", the statement added.
Kebbi Schoolgirls Kidnap: Arise, Confront This Evil, NLC Tells FG
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the federal government to take firmer, more coherent actions against the worsening security crisis following the abduction of schoolgirls by armed bandits in Kebbi State.
In a statement signed yesterday by its president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the Congress expressed concern over the incident, describing it as a painful setback for a state that has maintained a reputation for regular salary payments, consistent pension obligations and notable infrastructural development.
Ajaero stated that Kebbi's investments in social welfare and proactive security measures were designed to alleviate pressure on communities and reduce the likelihood of violent attacks.
He noted that the bandits' ability to strike with "relative ease" despite these efforts suggests a more troubling national security failure.
The NLC further said the episode calls for wider reflection, recalling earlier assurances that mass abductions such as the Chibok schoolgirls' incident would not recur.
The labour centre stressed that Governor Nasir Idris requires full support as the state grapples with the trauma inflicted on victims, families and the wider community.
Ajaero added that federal security spending has yet to yield meaningful protection for citizens, and questioned why "bogus budgets" have not translated into greater safety.
The labour leader further warned that insecurity was shrinking both the physical and psychological space available to Nigerians, adding that frontline states are already under severe strain and others may soon face similar pressures unless decisive national action is taken.
The statement reads in parts, "The news of the abduction of college students by bandits in Kebbi State deeply saddens us. That bandits struck with relative ease despite these measures points to something more worrying, something sinister, something we cannot readily identify.
"We had been promised that after Chibok, it would not happen again, yet here we are, back where we started. Let us therefore today arise as a nation and as a people determined to confront this evil before it consumes us all."
Kebbi Schoolgirls' Abduction: Our Daughters Must Return Back Home Safely, Says VP
For us leaders to sleep well and comfortably, our abducted daughters, whom the bandits kidnapped, must return home safely, Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima has said.
He stated this on Wednesday at Government House in Birnin Kebbi, when he paid a sympathy visit to Governor Nasir Idris at the orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Shettima told the governor that President Tinubu had directed him to visit Kebbi State to sympathise with the government, people and parents of the affected students abducted by bandits on Sunday.
"I have paid a similar visit in my hometown, Maiduguri, where a suspected ISWAP group killed a senior army officer, Brigadier General Musa Uba, where I sympathised with the Nigerian Army and the family of the deceased.
"We condemn these attacks on the Girls' School in Maga in totality and the brutal murder of our brave soldier, Musa," Shettima said.
"We will not sleep until the perpetrators of this act get arrested and purnish. Let our troops stand up firmly to fight these criminals in order to have peace in the nation." the VP added.
Shettima urged collaboration among the security personnel in tracking the abductors.
He described Governor Nasir Idris as one of the greatest sons of the country and urged parents of the abducted students to remain calm as the federal government is doing everything possible to secure the safe release of their daughters.
Nigerians should speak with one voice to confront common enemy - Akume
Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, has appealed to Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion, or political persuasions to speak with one strong and united voice to confront a common enemy.
According to him, they should join forces to defeat the terrorists, bandits and insurgents.
He asserted that the widespread killings and displacement in Nigeria's North-West are driven by economic interests, not religion.
Akume debunked claims that Christians are being targeted in a coordinated genocide.
He made this clarification in a detailed press statement issued on Wednesday.
He stressed that both Muslims and Christians have suffered equally from the actions of insurgents, bandits, and other violent groups operating in different parts of the country.
According to him, the evolution of insecurity in Nigeria has unfolded along two major lines: the ideological insurgency in the North-East, championed by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and the profit-driven criminal banditry spreading across the North-West.
He explained that banditry in the North-West--which escalated from 2018--is fuelled by economic pressures such as cattle rustling, illegal mining, kidnapping-for-ransom, extortion, and competition for land and water resources intensified by desertification, not religious extremism.
"Victims of these violent groups include Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists," the SGF stated, adding that no credible international institution has ever classified Nigeria's crisis as a genocide against Christians or any other group.
Akume linked the rise of Boko Haram and ISWAP to the destabilisation that followed the 2011 collapse of Libya and instability in Egypt, which allowed Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to flood the Sahel with looted weapons and extremist ideology.
He noted that these arms flowed through smuggling routes into West Africa and strengthened Nigeria's insurgency, later spilling into the economic banditry networks in the North-West.
The SGF recalled that before 2010, Nigeria had no legal or institutional framework to combat terrorism.
"The 1st October, 2010 bombing in Abuja, masterminded by Henry Okah, exposed the gap and led to the enactment of the Terrorism Prevention Act in 2011 and its amendment in 2013.
"These laws empowered our agencies to track terrorism financing, enhance intelligence cooperation, and build the counter-terrorism framework we use today," he said.
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He said what the country needs from partners like the United States is intelligence, cooperation, technology, and military equipment--not foreign boots on the ground.
He also warned that recent public pronouncements from the United States had unintentionally emboldened violent groups looking to exploit international narratives.
Nigeria, he reiterated, is a secular state as guaranteed by the Constitution, with no adopted national religion and equal representation of Christians and Muslims in the Federal Executive Council, including the security council.
He warned that mischaracterising the conflict as genocide fuels dangerous religious tension, emboldens extremist factions, and undermines Nigeria's security partnerships.
"As one of the largest democracies in Africa and the world, Nigeria and the United States have a shared responsibility to work together to promote global stability and confront extremist threats," he said.
He urged Nigerians across all divides to unite against a common enemy.
"Terrorists, bandits, and extremist insurgents must be completely eradicated from our national borders," he said.
Kebbi Refutes US' Claims, Releases Names Of Abducted Schoolgirls
In a swift reaction to the recent claims by US Lawmaker, Riley Moore, alleging that the abducted students are majority Christians, the chairman of Danko/Wasagu local government in Kebbi State, Hussaini Aliyu has released the names of the abducted students in an effort to dismiss the claim.
The students, according to him, are:
Senior Secondary School 2A
- Fatima Sani Zimri
- Hafsat Ibrahim
- Nana Firdausi Jibril
- Masauda Yakubu Romo
Senior Secondary School 2B
- Hauwa Saleh
- Hauwau Umar Imam
Senior Secondary School 3A & 3B
- Salima Garba Umar
- Salima Sani Zimri
- Amina G. Umar
- Rashida Muhammad Dingu
- Saliha Umar
- Aisha Usman
- Jamila Iliyasu
- Maryam Illiyasu
- Najaatu Abdullahi
- Zainab Kolo
Junior Secondary School 3A
- Surraya Tukur
- Hafsat Umar Yalmo
- Maryam Usman
- Amina Illiyasu
- Ikilima Suleman
Junior Secondary School 2
- Khadija Nazifi
- Hauwa'u Iliyasu
- Hauwa'u Lawali
- Ummu Kulsum Abdulkarim
