EXCLUSIVE: Week of Turmoil — Kebbi Schoolgirls Abducted, Kwara Church Attacked, Kanu Jailed for Life
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| Symbolic representation of Nigeria in crisis, amid abductions, attacks, and rising insecurity. Credit: Public Domain |
Nigeria is reeling from a wave of crises that together expose the fragility of its security, politics, and international standing. Twenty-five schoolgirls were abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State in a pre‑dawn raid. In Kwara State, armed bandits fired into a church during evening service, killed several people, and carried off dozens of worshippers. In Abuja, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on terrorism charges. All this is unfolding against a backdrop of earlier, sharp international pressure — including a warning from U.S. President Donald J. Trump, who last month threatened military intervention in Nigeria if Christians continue to be attacked.
In the early hours of Monday, November 17, gunmen on motorcycles overran the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State. According to police, the attackers exchanged fire with security forces before scaling the school’s perimeter fence, entering the dormitory, and abducting 25 girls. The vice principal was killed during the attack. Security forces, supported by local hunters, immediately launched a search in nearby forests.Two of the girls have since escaped, according to school and local officials.
Later that week, tragedy struck in Eruku, a town in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State. Around 6 p.m., bandits stormed the Christ Apostolic Church during a service. State police confirmed that at least three people died and about ten worshippers were abducted. Community sources, however, report that as many as 38 people have been taken, and that ransom demands have already started. According to some community leaders, the captors are demanding ₦100 million per person, indicating a highly organized and financially motivated operation. The police have denied receiving an official ransom notice but say they are intensifying search operations.
As Nigeria struggles to respond to these brazen attacks, political tension in the Southeast has also escalated. On November 20, a Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Nnamdi Kanu on seven terrorism-related counts and sentenced him to life imprisonment. According to the ruling by Justice James Omotosho, some charges carried concurrent sentences: life imprisonment on the most serious counts, 20 years on membership of a proscribed organization, and five years for unlawful importation of a radio transmitter. The judge also branded Kanu an “international terrorist,” citing his threats toward foreign diplomatic missions and his broadcasts via Radio Biafra. While prosecutors pressed for the death penalty, the judge opted for mercy, invoking both Christian principles and global opposition to capital punishment. The court also ordered that Kanu be held in protective custody, barred from accessing digital devices, and that his transmitter be forfeited to the government.
Kanu’s sentence is certain to reverberate across the Southeast. For his supporters, the ruling represents political persecution; for his detractors, it is a long-overdue accountability for what they describe as ideological incitement. But the decision comes at a fragile moment for Nigeria — a time when security failures and political fault lines are intersecting dangerously.
Complicating the domestic picture is renewed international scrutiny.
In early November, President Donald J. Trump took to social media to demand that Nigeria “protect Christians” or face severe consequences. He warned that the U.S. would halt all aid and that he had instructed the Pentagon to “prepare for possible action,” pledging that any intervention would be “fast, vicious, and sweet.” The African Union quickly pushed back, rejecting Trump’s framing of Nigeria as a site of Christian genocide and warning that foreign military threats could worsen the crisis
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| Symbolic image of grief, representing the pain and anguish of families affected by abductions and attacks in Nigeria. Credit: Cheryl Casey / iStock |
The pathway forward is perilous. For schoolgirls snatched in the dead of night, immediate rescue is the urgent need. For abducted worshippers, community and religious leaders demand justice and protection. For political leaders, especially in the Southeast, the challenge is to channel grief and anger into constructive dialogue rather than deeper division. And for Abuja, the test is to respond not just with force, but with credibility — by dismantling the structural economy that fuels banditry, by addressing the grievances that underpin secessionist sentiment, and by resisting simplistic external narratives.
For Nigerians already fatigued by years of violence, the hope now must be that this chain of shock can become a turning point — not just another headline, but a moment of reckoning.
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