The Department of State Services (DSS) has recorded a major breakthrough in the investigation of the mass abduction of students and staff from a Catholic boarding school in Papiri, Niger State, with the arrest of five suspected arms traffickers, including two foreign nationals from neighbouring Niger Republic.
Security sources said the suspects were apprehended during a series of intelligence-driven operations targeting arms supply networks believed to be providing logistical support to terrorist groups and kidnapping gangs operating across northern Nigeria.
The arrests are being viewed by security officials as a significant step toward unraveling the network behind the November 2025 attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Boarding School in Papiri, where hundreds of students and teachers were abducted by heavily armed gunmen.
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Among those arrested are Yusuf Mohammed, popularly known as Bature, and Mubarak Ibrahim.
