The grief is still raw in Amina Hassan’s voice, a piercing tremor of loss that tells a story far darker than the official reports. In the wake of the brutal attack on Government Girls Comprehensive Senior School in Maga, Kebbi State, where 25 students were abducted in the early hours of Monday, the narrative had focused on the missing.
But for Amina, the tragedy is anchored to one specific, devastating location: her bedroom, where the life of her husband, Vice Principal Makuku Hassan, was extinguished by a bandit’s bullet.
Contrary to initial reports that placed his death in a school hostel, Amina clarifies the horrifying intimacy of the crime. The invaders, disguised in military camouflage, did not confront him on the school grounds; they breached the sanctity of his home, finding him and his family defenseless in their sleep.
“I was awake when I heard some strange sounds. I was thinking it was goats,” Amina began, recounting the prelude to the nightmare. The ordinary assumption quickly shattered into terror. “Then, I heard a noise as someone was trying to enter the house. I woke up my husband. He was asleep. Behold! They were already in our room.”
The scene that unfolded next was one of swift and merciless violence. There was no struggle, no negotiation. As the bandits flooded into the room, Makuku’s first and final act was one of faith. “On sighting the invaders, he started reciting Allahu Akbar! Ina lillahi wainna ilaihin rajiun! [God is the Greatest! We belong to God and to Him we shall return!]” Amina recalled.
His devout utterance was met not with reason, but with a trigger. “One of the bandits just fired at him. He slumped and died.”
In an instant, Amina’ world collapsed. Her instinct was to reach for her fallen husband, a final touch, a moment of connection in the face of unspeakable horror. But the brutality was not yet complete. The same men who had just murdered her husband threatened to do the same to her. “I made an effort to touch him, but the bandits warned me if I moved an inch, they would kill me too.”
The chilling warning forced her into a state of paralyzed shock. “I told them to leave me alone. They killed the father of my children and just then my daughter came and they started engaging her, asking her to give them money. But, she told them there’s no money in the house.”
It was during this tense exchange over money that a sliver of survival instinct took over. “I opened the door and went out of the house, trying to move to my neighbour’s house,” Amina said. But even in her escape, the scale of the attack became clear. “On my way, I realised the bandits had surrounded our house.”
Now, in the stark light of day, the full weight of her loss is crushing. The man who was her partner, her provider, and her happiness is gone. “I don’t know what to say right now,” she whispered, her words heavy with a sorrow that has only just begun. “My husband is gone. My happiness is gone. My everything is gone. The father of my kids is gone.”
A Nation Responds to the Crisis
As Amina mourns, the nation has been jolted into action. The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu, has taken direct command of the response. During a visit to the scene of the abduction, he ordered troops of Operation FANSAN YANMA to step up efforts to rescue the students alive. Captain David Adewusi, Media and Information Officer of the operation, confirmed that the General has mandated frontline commanders to carry out “intelligence-driven operations” and maintain a “relentless pursuit” of the abductors, emphasizing that rescuing the schoolgirls remains the absolute priority.
In a strategic move, General Shaibu also met with local vigilantes and hunters, describing them as “vital partners” in the rescue mission and encouraging them to leverage their intimate knowledge of the local terrain to help troops track down the criminals.
The condemnation of the attack has come from the highest levels of society. The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, strongly condemned the abduction. In a poignant moment during a visit from the Wives of Service Chiefs at the State House in Abuja, Mrs. Tinubu requested a minute of silence to honour the slain Vice Principal and the other victims of the Kebbi attack.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also issued a strong statement, condemning the attack and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the abducted students. The organization described the incident as “a stark reminder” of the urgent need to protect children, schools, and education personnel, stressing that such targets are protected under international law.
Meanwhile, the IA-Foundation, a non-profit focused on education, blamed the abduction on a combination of “security failure and lack of equitable education.” Its founder, Ibironke Adeagbo, stated that the incident “underscored Nigeria’s ongoing education and security crisis,” making education a “dangerous undertaking” for many Nigerian children.
As the manhunt for the bandits and the 25 missing girls intensifies, the story in Maga is one of two parallel tragedies: a community praying for the safe return of its daughters, and a widow, Amina Hassan, left alone to grapple with a personal void that no rescue mission can ever fill. Her husband, the vice principal who dedicated his life to education, became its latest, most personal, casualty.
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