A total of 265 students and teachers of the St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools, Papiri, in Niger State, are still unaccounted for, a Catholic Bishop, Bulus Yohanna has said.
Yohanna, who serves as the catholic Bishop of Kontagora, put out a reminder to the Federal Government for the rescue of the teacher and students kidnapped by some terrorists last week.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Friday, the Catholic Bishop said 12 teachers and a total of 253 students are still missing after the incident.
According to the cleric, the affected diocese has forwarded the names of the victims to the Governor of Niger State, Umar Bago.
“We had 303 pupils and students missing and 12 teachers also not seen. We added that number to make it 315 which cannot be accounted for after taking the headcount.
“Those who escaped went back home to their villages. When we started having calls from those that reunited with their parents, we were able to get 50 out of the 315, including staff and teachers who could not be accounted for, we deducted that number so we now have 265 as of now, that is the number that is missing,” Yohanna, who is also the chairperson for the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Niger said.
He further appealed to the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency deploy security operatives to rescue the victims.
In addition, he noted that the abduction of the students and teachers has been an issue of serious concern to CAN, parents and families of the victims.
Also, suggesting a long-term plan, for the institution, Yohanna called for better initiatives to be adopted for the protection of schools across states of the country against further attacks.
