Gunmen Invade NECO Centre, Abduct Students in Borno

Examination halls turned into scenes of terror in Lassa town on Monday morning as gunmen stormed Government Day Secondary School in the Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, abducting an unspecified number of students sitting the National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Examination and killing at least one teacher.

The attackers struck at about 9 a.m. while candidates were writing their papers, firing sporadically to scatter pupils, staff and residents before whisking several of them into the surrounding bush. A teacher was shot dead and another sustained injuries during the raid.

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the Borno State Police Command, Nahum Daso, said some students remained unaccounted for. “At about 9 a.m., an unspecified number of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists attacked a secondary school and shot sporadically into the air,” he said, adding that operatives confronted the assailants and prevented a larger-scale abduction.

According to him, a coordinated search and rescue operation involving the military, the Civilian Joint Task Force and the area commander in Askira/Uba is underway, with security personnel combing nearby forests to locate the victims and track down the attackers.

The Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, Solomon Kwamagar, an indigene of Lassa, said the gunmen exploited the weekly market. “Today is Lassa market day. I was informed that they came through the market on motorcycles and went to Government Day Secondary School, Lassa. They shot and killed one teacher and took away all the students who were in their classrooms,” he said.

Residents alleged that soldiers stationed in the community had left on a routine patrol to Uba, about 16 kilometres away, shortly before the gunmen invaded. Some accounts put the toll higher, claiming two teachers and a female student were killed, though security agencies have yet to confirm casualty figures.

The raid revives painful memories of a worsening pattern. On May 15, 2026, terrorists believed to be ISWAP fighters attacked schools in Mussa, within the same Askira/Uba council, abducting dozens of pupils, while coordinated attacks in Oyo State during the same period led to the kidnapping of more than 40 pupils and teachers. Borno stakeholders had earlier appealed for the release of 42 children seized in that Mussa attack.

The latest assault deepens a national crisis that began with the 2014 Chibok abduction. A total of 1,683 schoolchildren have been kidnapped in Nigeria since 276 schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in Borno State, according to Save the Children, with at least 91 of the Chibok girls still missing more than a decade later, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The scale has grown sharper in recent years. In November 2025, bandits raided St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, kidnapping more than 300 schoolchildren and staff, while over 280 pupils were seized from Kuriga, Kaduna State, in March 2024. UNESCO estimates more than 20 million children remain out of school in Nigeria, among the highest figures of any country.

With NECO examinations still ongoing nationwide, attention now turns to whether the federal authorities will mount the kind of high-profile response seen after the Oyo attack. More details are expected as the situation develops.