The number of pupils and teachers abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools, Papiri, Niger State, is 315 as against 227 earlier reported.

The Christian Association of Nigeria made the clarification in a statement on Saturday.

The statement signed by CAN chairman, Bulus Yohanna, said pupils they thought escaped were also kidnapped. A census conducted showed that 88 additional pupils were missing with their parents demanding their whereabouts.

He said, “After we left the school at Papiri, we decided to make calls, do a verification exercise, and do further enquiries on those we had thought escaped successfully, only to discover that 88 more students were also captured after they tried to escape. Our attention was drawn to when some parents whose children we had thought escaped from the attack also came asking about their children. We became curious, and that was when we did a census and discovered that they were abducted. This now makes it 303 students (male and female), including 12 teachers (4 females and 8 males), bringing the total number of abducted persons to 315.’’

The incident occurred between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday with witnesses saying motorcycle-riding gunmen besieged the school and abducted the pupils.

Governor Mohammed Bago’s administration blamed the abduction on the disobedience of the Catholic School to shut down the institution as directed in a circular.

Mr Yohanna described the governor’s statement as false, saying no circular was distributed ordering closure of schools.

The CAN chairman said he “was gritted with what I term “propaganda” that the school was given a prior warning by the government through a circular.”

He stated, “That is not true, we did not receive any circular, it must be an afterthought and a way to shift blame. In the past, around 2022, when we heard of rumours of a security challenge, we did not hesitate; we shut down immediately. Is it when there is a circular from the government asking us to shut down that we will now not obey?

“We have asked the education secretary if he received a circular, he said no; or if he was asked to send any to us, he said no. We asked if he was verbally informed, and he also said no. Let them tell the world who they gave the circular to, or through what channel they sent it. We also asked the National Association of Private Schools, and they did not get any such circular. They claimed the school was shut down and reopened a few days ago, which is also not true. We are law-abiding.”