DSS Arrests Five Suspects, Including Two Foreigners, Over Papiri School Abduction

By Tgnews Reporter

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested five suspected arms couriers, including two Nigerien nationals, in connection with the November 2025 mass abduction at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State.

Security sources say the suspects were allegedly supplying weapons to the gunmen responsible for the attack, in which nearly 300 students and staff were kidnapped.

Those arrested include Yusuf Mohammed, also known as Bature, a wanted member of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (Boko Haram), and his associate, Mubarak Ibrahim. The duo were intercepted along the Zaria-Kaduna Highway while heading to collect a consignment of arms.

A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Goni Ibrahim, an international arms courier from the Diffa Region of Niger Republic, along with his accomplice, Tukur Sani.

During the operations, security operatives recovered 15 AK-103 rifles, 15 magazines, and 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition concealed in a blue vehicle used by the suspects.

Days later, another member of the syndicate, Alhaji Adamu, also known as Gado Banufe, was arrested in Yauri, Kebbi State. He is believed to be a major arms supplier operating in the Kebbi axis.

Preliminary investigations, according to sources, revealed that the five suspects acted as key arms suppliers to the terrorists behind the November 21, 2025 attack. Gunmen on motorcycles stormed the Catholic boarding school in the early hours, rounded up students and teachers at gunpoint, and whisked them away.