More than 300 pupils were kidnapped by armed bandits on Friday in Niger State, November 21, 2025, has shared her distressing account of the attack.
In a video released by Sahara Reporters, Mrs. Martha Mathias explained that the assailants stormed Niger State the school in three vehicles and multiple motorcycles, causing chaos among students and staff.
She further revealed that the bandits that was in Niger State also took money belonging to teachers, which had been kept in their rooms after they had recently received their salaries.
According to Mrs. Mathias, the chaos began in the early hours as children’s cries filled the school compound, signaling the start of the terrifying assault.
“My name is Mrs Martha Mathias, I work at St. Mary Catholic School as a classroom teacher. And I teach primary sections. It was around 1 a.m. on Friday when we were sleeping at night, and I heard children crying, ‘Please help me. Please help us. Please, where are the teachers? Please come and help us,’” she said.
She said she wanted to leave her room to check on the children, but her husband warned her that it was dangerous.
“And I wanted to come out. My husband said, ‘Lie down, lie down; they are bandits. Don’t go out.’ I went back. So they continued shouting. I wanted to come out again. He said, ‘Please, don’t go,’” Mrs Mathias recalled.
The attackers gathered the children and asked about their parents and teachers.
“When they gathered all the children, they now asked them, ‘Where are your parents?’ They said, ‘We don’t have parents here. They are at home.’ They said, ‘Okay, where are the teachers?’ They said, ‘Our teachers are here. See their rooms,’” she said.
She added that the bandits then went to her colleague Metron’s room before coming to their room.
“So they now started with Metron. They went to her room. When she came out. They now come to our room. They asked my husband to come out. When he came out, they asked him to lie down. They now tied his hand behind his back. They now carried him and left with him,” she recounted.
Mrs Mathias was later allowed to leave her room to care for her infant, but the bandits scattered items in her room, causing further panic.
“They said I should come out. I was about to come out. My infant child now started crying. I said I wanted to go back and carry my child. They said, okay, I can go and carry him. So when I went to carry my child, they now entered my room and scattered everywhere, scattered everything,” she said.
She also described the threat faced by her daughter during the attack in Niger State.
“So my daughter now started shouting that she would follow us, she would follow Daddy and Mummy. She now came out, she started running, she came to me. So they now said, go back, go back. She said, I’m not going. They said, go back. They now put a gun on her forehead, saying that if she did not stop crying or go back to the room, they would kill her. She said, I’m not going, I must follow Mummy. One of them now said, let’s leave this woman, let her go back. That was when they left us,” Mrs Mathias said.
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