The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested five suspects, including two foreign nationals from Niger Republic, over their alleged roles as arms couriers in the November 2025 mass abduction at St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, where nearly 300 students and staff were kidnapped.
Security sources said the operation also led to the recovery of a substantial arms cache comprising 15 AK-103 rifles, 15 magazines, and 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, concealed in a blue vehicle used by the suspects.
Those arrested include Yusuf Mohammed, also known as Bature, a suspected member of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (Boko Haram), who was already on the security watchlist, and his alleged accomplice, Mubarak Ibrahim.
They were reportedly intercepted along the Zaria–Kaduna highway while en route to collect weapons for their commanders.
A follow-up intelligence-led operation later led to the arrest of two other suspects — Goni Ibrahim, described as an international arms courier from Diffa Region of Niger Republic, and Tukur Sani, allegedly working with him.
According to security sources, preliminary investigations linked the suspects to the network that supplied arms used in the Papiri school attack of November 21, 2025.
The deadly raid saw dozens of armed men on motorcycles storm the school in the early hours, rounding up students and teachers. While about 50 pupils escaped during the chaos, over 250 others were forced into the Kainji Lake forest axis and held for weeks.
Although all remaining captives were eventually rescued and reunited with their families by December 21, 2025, authorities say investigations have continued to unravel the wider logistics network behind the operation.
In a further development, operatives also arrested another suspected member of the syndicate, Alhaji Adamu, popularly known as Gado Banufe, in Yauri, Kebbi State. He was allegedly responsible for coordinating arms movement across the Kebbi corridor.
Security officials said the arrests have exposed a cross-border arms trafficking ring supplying weapons to insurgent and kidnapping gangs operating across the North-West and parts of the North-Central region.
The DSS has continued interrogation of the suspects as efforts intensify to dismantle the wider network behind the Papiri school attack and other recent abductions in the region.
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