Senator Garba Demands Answers Over School Abductions, Says “We Know Who the Bandits Are”

Senator Garba Musa Maidoki of Kebbi South Senatorial District issued an emotional but pointed statement on the Senate floor on Wednesday, expressing both relief and frustration following the release of 24 abducted schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, a community in his constituency.

“I am happy and sad at the same time,” he told colleagues. While celebrating the girls’ safe return and confirming they were reunited with their families unharmed, the senator said the episode exposed deeper failures in Nigeria’s security response.

Garba insisted that the nation’s leadership could no longer pretend to be in the dark about the perpetrators of recurring attacks. “We know who these bandits are, we know where they are, we know what they want,” he said, urging the government to adopt a clear and decisive strategy, whether negotiation or force, rather than what he described as ongoing ambiguity.

The senator demanded transparency over the circumstances surrounding the students’ abduction, particularly reports that soldiers were withdrawn from the school shortly before the incident. “Nigerians want to know who withdrew soldiers from the school before the students were abducted. Who stands to benefit from these insecurities?” he asked.