Staff saves pupils as gunmen attack Catholic school in Nigeria

Hundreds of children have been kidnapped from schools in Nigeria, but the latest attack on a Catholic school was foiled, and no one was killed or abducted.

A principal’s quick thinking helped save the lives of sleeping students when armed extremists stormed a secondary school in Nigeria’s Middle Belt the evening of May 7th.

According to the director of social communications for the Diocese of Makurdi, Father Moses Iorapuu, the principal of the Father Angus Frazer Memorial High School, Father Emmanuel Ogwuche, switched off all the lights in the building after hearing gunshots outside, preventing terrorists from finding their way into the school.

Father Iorapuu told ACN that unidentified extremists opened fire on the school while students were still asleep, adding that “there were so many gunshots, and they were shooting for a very long time. We were lucky, and the Lord was kind to us. No student was hit.”

At the time, an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps was guarding the school. Father Iorapuu said that he “jumped over the fence,” and “the gunmen went after him, but he managed to escape” with non-fatal injuries.

The priest explained that the school is temporarily closed and that the students have been evacuated as “a pre-emptive measure to ensure the safety of the children and avoid what could have been an unimaginable disaster.”

Father Iorapuu said that the students are “traumatized,” and “there is fear” of further violence. “This attack was the first of its kind that we’ve experienced. They have attacked churchgoers, farmers, and villagers before, but now they have upped their game, attacking a school. We are not sure what is going to happen next.”

He added that the police were very slow in responding: “By the time they came, the attackers had disappeared. And the people are kind of getting used to these attacks. The response from the government has been rather unimpressive.”

The high school is located in Makurdi’s Phase 3 area, a district that is notorious for killings and kidnappings by suspected Fulani militants. Father Iorapuu said that the Diocese of Makurdi has tightened security at Church buildings and appealed to the authorities to ensure the citizens’ safety. He hopes that the state governor will “wake up to the reality of what we are facing.”

“This attack happened in the capital of Makurdi State, and if there are no security arrangements to protect our schools, then we have to suspend our activities, because we don’t know which school will be the next target. We are expecting that there will be a reaction, and this attack on the school will finally push the government to act,” he concluded.

The attack, which ACN learned about through local sources, took place shortly after a trip to Nigeria by ACN representatives. The trip included visits to some of the areas most affected by violence in Nigeria, including Makurdi.

Extremist attacks on schools in Nigeria came to international attention with Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 female students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. Over a decade later, more than 90 students are still reported missing.

The most recent mass kidnapping of students occurred on March 7th of this year, with more than 200 children taken in Kaduna State, in northern Nigeria.

—Amy Balog & Maria Lozano