Growing anxiety and anguish have continued to run high; families and relatives of abducted travellers, pupils and students said the community’s patience was rapidly giving way to fear and uncertainty and wondered how terrorists abducted their loved ones, and yet held them captive for months.
As families continue to wait for news of their children 100 days after, families of 16 travellers abducted along the Biu-Buratai Road on April 16, 2026. The Boko Haram insurgents invaded Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Askira-Uba Local Government on May 15 and abducted 42 pupils, some of them as young as seven years, and recently terrorists later attacked Government Secondary School Lassa, the same LGA, at least 36 students who were writing the National Examinations Council (NECO) examination and a teacher were kidnapped, comprising 25 girls and 11 boys.
The recent sad development has changed the narrative in the war against terrorism and banditry in Nigeria. A surge of violence and abduction of innocent civilians, including pupils, students, travellers, farmers, security personnel, and ex-generals, has further raised genuine questions about whether the country is making headway against the outlaw groups because, as it is, no person seems safe in the country.
