This decision was made in response to recent security threats, particularly attacks on educational facilities.

A joint statement issued by the Commissioner for Higher Education, Issa Abubakar-Tunga, and the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Halima Bande, confirmed the closure in Birnin Kebbi. The statement cited the increasing risks posed by recent attacks in parts of the state as the primary reason for the shutdown.

The commissioners have urged school managements to comply with the directive, advising them to remain calm as the state government will announce a resumption date in due course.

The closure follows a deadly attack on the Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, GGCSS, in Maga, where gunmen abducted 25 students and killed a school official. The attack, which occurred in the early hours of the morning, is one of several incidents of school abductions in northern Nigeria in recent years.

Police reports confirmed that a group of armed assailants, using sophisticated weapons, stormed the school at around 4:00 a.m., shooting sporadically. Despite a swift police response, the attackers managed to scale the school’s perimeter fence and abduct the students. The deputy headteacher was shot dead, and a security guard was injured during the raid.

The incident has raised fears of a return to the mass school abductions that have plagued northern Nigeria for years. Authorities have deployed military and police units, along with local vigilantes, to track down the assailants and rescue the kidnapped students.

Source: Channels