Ten days after suspected insurgents abducted dozens of children in Mussa, Borno State officials visited neighbouring Lassa to reassess the security situation and evaluate the safety of its public schools.
The delegation, led by the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Lawan Wakilbe, visited Mussa, Dille and Lassa on 25 May as part of the government’s response to the 15 May abduction.
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After the assessment, the government said Mr Wakilbe directed that “all Safe School Initiative measures be fully implemented in the affected schools pending further government directives.”
Fasuma Askira, education secretary of Askira-Uba Local Government Area, was among the officials listed as members of the delegation.
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The government also said the temporary closure and relocation of Government Day Secondary School, Mussa, was an immediate safety measure under the Safe Schools Initiative.
Thirty-five days later, Lassa was attacked.
On 29 June, suspected insurgents attacked Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, while students were taking the National Examinations Council examination.
Some abductees were recovered shortly after the attack, but subsequent verification by PREMIUM TIMES established that 36 students and a teacher remained in captivity.
The Lassa attack came 45 days after Mussa.
The government had, however, announced Safe Schools measures between the two attacks.
What became of those measures?
Interviews with parents, community leaders and the local education authority, together with parliamentary and government records reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, did not establish what measures were implemented at Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, following the May assessment.
Mrs Askira, who was reportedly part of the government delegation that visited Lassa, told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview on 19 August that the Safe Schools programme was not operating in schools in the affected area.
The federal body coordinating the country’s Safe Schools response also did not clarify, despite repeated enquiries, whether Mussa or Lassa had been registered, verified or formally assessed under the national programme, what intervention reached the area, or how the Borno government’s announced measures related to the federal Safe Schools structure.
The effects of the insecurity have also spread throughout the local education system.
Mrs Askira confirmed that only 56 of Askira-Uba’s 113 primary schools were functioning following security-related closures, compared with 76 before the Mussa crisis.
Security concerns predated the abductions
Security concerns around Mussa and Lassa did not begin with the May attack.
More than a year before the Mussa abduction, concerns over the security situation in the communities had reached the House of Representatives.
On 20 February 2024, Midala Balami, who represents Askira-Uba/Hawul Federal Constituency, sponsored a motion titled “Need to Prevent Killings and Deploy Urgent Security Measures in Saban Gari, Kelle, Dille, Lassa and Mussa Towns in Askira-Uba and Hawul Local Government Areas in Borno State.”
The House noted that attacks, killings and destruction in the communities had become recurrent and said there was an urgent need for “robust and efficient security measures” to prevent further attacks.
It urged the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to deploy, strengthen and intensify security measures in Mussa, Lassa, Dille and the surrounding axis.
Eight months later, the House again discussed security in the same communities, this time in relation to education.
On 15 October 2024, Mr Balami sponsored another motion regarding the difficulties faced by students taking JAMB, WAEC, and SSCE examinations in Mussa, Dille, and Lassa.
The House noted that insecurity was affecting students in the communities and called on the Federal Ministry of Education to collaborate with security agencies to ensure the safety of students, teachers and examination materials.
It also mandated relevant committees to monitor compliance.
The records show that security concerns in Mussa and Lassa had been formally brought before the National Assembly more than a year before the two school abductions.
Mussa attacked
On 15 May 2026, suspected insurgents attacked Mussa.
PREMIUM TIMES subsequently obtained a register from Mussa Ward councillor Peter Wabba identifying 40 missing children by name, age and family background.
Further checks in the community at the time suggested the number could be higher, with families and local officials producing varying counts.
Mr Wabba later told PREMIUM TIMES that little reliable information about the children’s whereabouts had reached grassroots community leaders.
“At our level, there is no information apart from hearsay,” he said.
The abduction was followed by visits and other measures by the state government.
Governor Babagana Zulum visited the area on 19 May.
Six days later, the delegation led by Mr Wakilbe visited Mussa, Dille and Lassa.
In Mussa, the government announced the temporary closure and relocation of the Government Day Secondary School located there to the Government Secondary School, Uba, describing the decision as an immediate measure under the Safe Schools Initiative.
The delegation also went to Dille and Lassa.
The government said officials visited the two communities “to reassess the security situation and evaluate safety conditions in public schools within the affected areas.”
Parliament calls for stronger school protection
Eight days after the Borno assessment tour, on 2 June, the House of Representatives again debated school security following the Mussa abduction.
Lawmakers called for intensified efforts to rescue the children and urged enhanced security deployment around vulnerable schools in Borno and elsewhere.
The House also called for improved intelligence gathering, rapid-response mechanisms, surveillance, early-warning systems and community-based security arrangements.
Twenty-seven days later, Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, was attacked.
What was actually implemented at Lassa?
The Borno Government’s May statement says Lassa was visited and its security situation reassessed.
It also says the education commissioner ordered the implementation of Safe Schools measures in affected schools.
The statement does not say what followed at Lassa.
Asked during the 19 August interview what education authorities did after Mussa to protect other vulnerable schools, Mrs Askira said the local authority wrote to the ministry and recommended temporary closures in the Mussa and Lassa areas.
Schools on the outskirts and in vulnerable rural communities were temporarily closed, she said, while junior secondary pupils from Mussa were moved to a government boarding school in Uba.
She said discussions were also held with the local government chairman about deploying community vigilantes around schools when classes resumed.
Under the arrangement she described, vigilantes would remain around school premises from the beginning of the school day until closing time.
She also said Mussa and Lassa had some military presence alongside local vigilantes.
But when PREMIUM TIMES asked whether Mussa was covered by the Safe Schools Initiative or another formal school-security programme before the attack, Mrs Askira answered: “No.”
After a break in the interview, PREMIUM TIMES returned to the issue.
Mrs Askira initially asked which programme the reporter was referring to.
When the reporter explained that he meant the Safe Schools programme for vulnerable schools, she said:
“We don’t have this programme of school initiatives in our schools in that area.”
She subsequently said she could not speak for schools in Maiduguri metropolis but expressed doubt that the programme operated in rural local government areas outside the metropolis.
At Mrs Askira’s request, PREMIUM TIMES later sent her the principal statements intended for attribution so she could identify any inaccuracies or misquotations.
She corrected the number of functioning primary schools and the spellings of some schools and communities, but retained the substance of her Safe Schools account.
Her account and the government’s statement leave a point requiring clarification.
The state government said Mrs Askira was part of a delegation that visited Lassa and that the education commissioner ordered the implementation of Safe Schools measures in affected schools.
Mrs Askira later said the Safe Schools programme was not operating in schools in the area.
The statements do not necessarily conflict. Measures described as part of Safe Schools could have been ordered even where a formal Safe Schools structure was not operating.
But neither the Borno State Government nor the federal Safe Schools coordinating centre has explained what was in place in Askira-Uba.
The Borno government’s statement also did not say whether its reference to “Safe School Initiative measures” meant interventions formally coordinated through the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre or security arrangements adopted by the state under the wider Safe Schools framework.
PREMIUM TIMES asked the federal coordinating centre to clarify the relationship.
What Nigeria’s Safe Schools programme provides
The federal government’s Standard Operating Procedure for the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre describes the National Plan on Safe Schools as a national framework for protecting at-risk schools, learners, teachers, non-teaching staff and host communities from attacks.
The framework provides for collaboration among the Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the police, the Department of State Services, the Defence Headquarters and other government bodies.
Its objectives include coordinating measures to prevent and respond to attacks on schools.
PREMIUM TIMES asked the federal coordinating centre whether Mussa Central Primary School and Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, were registered, mapped, verified or otherwise captured under the National Safe Schools programme.
The newspaper also asked whether either school had undergone a formal vulnerability assessment, whether Lassa was reassessed under the federal framework following Mussa, and how the Borno Government’s 25 May assessment related to the NSSRCC.
Other questions covered the measures implemented before the 29 June attack and the number of schools in Askira-Uba that had been registered, verified or formally assessed under the programme.
NSSRCC questions remain unanswered
PREMIUM TIMES began efforts to reach the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre on 23 August, using telephone contacts published in the federal government’s Early Warning Handbook.
The newspaper eventually made contact with the Centre on 26 August, when one of its published lines returned an earlier call. PREMIUM TIMES subsequently spoke with Mohammed Yabagi, an official of the Centre.
Mr Yabagi asked the newspaper to forward its questions to a telephone contact and the Centre’s official email address, [email protected]. PREMIUM TIMES did so.
The newspaper spoke with him again after sending the questions and made several further follow-ups.
On Friday, PREMIUM TIMES sent a final reminder to Mr Yabagi and followed up by email, informing the Centre that the report was being concluded and asking for a response before 6 p.m. so that its position could be included.
No substantive response had been received by the deadline.
That does not establish that Mussa and Lassa were outside the Safe Schools system.
It means PREMIUM TIMES could not determine from the federal coordinating body what status the schools had under the programme, what assessments were conducted or what intervention, if any, was carried out between the two attacks.
Only 56 of 113 primary schools functioning
Insecurity has also affected schooling across Askira-Uba.
Mrs Askira confirmed that the local government has 113 primary schools.
Before the Mussa crisis, 76 were functioning.
Following the attacks and security-related closures, the number fell to 56, according to figures she subsequently reviewed and corrected for PREMIUM TIMES.
Not all 57 non-functioning schools stopped operating because of the two attacks.
Thirty-seven were already non-functional before the Mussa crisis.
The fall from 76 to 56, therefore, means 20 fewer primary schools were functioning following the security-related closures than before the crisis.
Mrs Askira identified affected schools around Mussa as Mussa Central, Mussa B, Mussa Burda, Chul, Kindindila, Lagunasara and Mungum.
Around Lassa, she named Lassa A, Lassa B, Hamman-Nomadic and Samuwa, among others.
She said insecurity had made it difficult to sustain schools in some rural settlements and favoured boarding primary schools in safer urban centres such as Uba.
Families wait, children remain out of school
Between 19 and 21 August, nearly two months after the Lassa abduction, PREMIUM TIMES spoke with parents and representatives of families whose children remained in captivity.
Milnda Lassa is the spokesperson for the families of the students abducted from Government Day Secondary School, Lassa. He is also one of the affected parents.
His son, Bitrus Milnda, an SS1 student, is among those still in captivity.
Mr Lassa told PREMIUM TIMES that shortly after the 29 June attack, residents pursued the abductors and returned with seven people, six students and one teacher.
Since then, he said, no other abductee has escaped, been rescued or returned.
According to Mr Lassa, 36 students and one teacher, 37 people in all, remain in captivity. The figure is consistent with PREMIUM TIMES’ verification after the attack.
He said the families still had no recent information to determine their children’s condition themselves.
“We don’t know whether they are well, whether they are alive,” he said.
Mr Lassa said the families had not received recent evidence enabling them to identify their children and confirm their condition.
He said he remained in occasional contact with Education Commissioner Mr Wakilbe, who had told him to be patient, continue praying and that efforts were ongoing.
But those conversations, he said, had provided no substantive information about where the children were, their condition or when they might return.
Mr Lassa also said the families had received no material assistance since the attack.
Some parents had become ill, while others had stopped working or going to their farms because of the distress surrounding the abduction, he said. He also said he had visited some affected parents in the hospital.
Mr Lassa said schools were no longer operating in Lassa and Mussa, while fear had affected farming and movement.
Although he had heard that additional security personnel were deployed to the area, he said residents had seen little improvement in how safe they felt.
“Nothing has changed,” he said.
It was through Mr Lassa that PREMIUM TIMES reached other affected parents. The children discussed in those interviews correspond to entries on the 36-name register reviewed by the newspaper.
Partsi Simon: ‘We have no information’
One of them is Partsi Simon, an SS2 student, whose father, Reverend Simon Waindu, has been waiting for her since the attack.
Mr Waindu also said 36 students and one teacher remained in captivity.
Asked whether the families had received recent information about their condition, he said:
“We have had nothing about it since they carried the children away.”
Mr Waindu said his family had received neither financial nor psychosocial assistance from the government since the abduction.
“No support, no encouragement,” he said.
His other children were also no longer attending school.
When PREMIUM TIMES asked whether any of them was currently in school, Mr Waindu answered:
“Nobody.”
He said schools in Lassa, Mussa and Dille had closed.
The abduction had also changed everyday life in his household, he said.
“We are not free because anytime, we are thinking about this.”
Mr Waindu said that activities around the home reminded the family of Partsi, while farming had become difficult because they could no longer do it “with a free mind”.
He appealed to the authorities to bring the children home.
Two children were taken from one family
Another mother interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES has two children among the 36 listed as still in captivity: Ibrahim Ijai and Margret Ijai, both SS1 students.
They are the two eldest of her four children, she said.
She identified Ibrahim as her son and Margret as her daughter.
Asked what information she had received about them since the abduction, she replied:
“No news.”
She said entering the room where the children slept and seeing their belongings brought her to tears.
The mother also recalled going to the farm with them on the Saturday before they were abducted the following Monday. She said she had not returned to the farm since.
Her two younger children are also no longer attending school.
She said some children who had watched their siblings leave for school and fail to return were now afraid to go to school themselves.
Martha Wajau wanted to become a nurse
Another name on the register is Martha Wajau, an SS1 student.
Her mother told PREMIUM TIMES that Martha was 15 when she was abducted.
She said she had received no information about her daughter’s condition since the attack, apart from visits by the families’ representative to console affected parents.
The mother had also seen the short video presented by the Borno State Government as proof of life for the abducted Lassa students.
She said she could not identify Martha in it.
Martha’s siblings were also no longer attending school, her mother said, because schools around them were not functioning.
Her mother said Martha’s absence was felt in the household chores she used to perform.
Martha, the eldest child, helped with cooking, fetching water, washing and other tasks around the home.
“Everything she used to do, she is not around to do it,” her mother said.
Martha wanted to become a nurse.
Partsi Simon, Bitrus Milnda, Ibrahim Ijai, Margret Ijai and Martha Wajau are among the children whose families are still waiting for their return.
Their siblings and other children in the affected communities are also losing school time as many schools remain closed and parents remain concerned about security.
Government says it has proof of life
In July, Education Commissioner Mr Wakilbe displayed a 15-second video at an education summit in Maiduguri, which the Borno State Government said showed the abducted Lassa students alive.
The government said 36 students, comprising 25 girls and 11 boys, remained in captivity.
Some parents interviewed later by PREMIUM TIMES said the footage did not enable them to identify their own children.
Mrs Askira separately said she had been told that the children abducted from Mussa and Lassa were alive.
She said, however, that she had no direct communication with the abductors and did not know who, if anyone, was negotiating with them.
Government says rescue efforts continue
Mrs Askira said government officials had remained in contact with the families of the abducted Mussa children.
She said officials had visited Mussa several times and that the Education Commissioner had asked the parents to choose a representative through whom information could be passed.
When PREMIUM TIMES asked about the families’ complaint that they had received little substantive information about the children, Mrs Askira described the message being given to them:
“Exercise patience. This is the only thing now.”
Officials, therefore, had some contact with affected families, but parents and community representatives interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES said they had received little concrete information about the children’s condition or likely return.
Borno Information Commissioner Professor Usma A. Tar also provided PREMIUM TIMES with a government statement after Governor Zulum met parents of the Mussa children at Government House in Maiduguri.
Mr Zulum said the state and federal governments were working together to rescue the children and that President Bola Tinubu had directed security agencies to secure their release.
The government described the Mussa victims as “about 44 primary school pupils.”
When PREMIUM TIMES subsequently asked Mr Tar about Lassa, proof of life, the differing Mussa figures, school protection and Safe Schools coverage, he said the statement was “all we can provide for now.”
Even the Mussa number remains unresolved
Public accounts still differ on how many children are missing from Mussa.
PREMIUM TIMES’ initial named register listed 40 children; community checks at the time suggested the total could be higher. The House of Representatives later referred to 42 children in its June deliberations. More recent Borno Government accounts have referred to “about 44” pupils. No public named register reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES has reconciled these figures.
Mr Wabba initially told PREMIUM TIMES he understood the number to be 42; he later deferred to the government’s figure after the parents’ meeting with Mr Zulum. PREMIUM TIMES also sought an interview with the spokesperson chosen by the Mussa parents to clarify the latest figure and what families were told at the meeting. He did not grant the interview.
Lawmakers do not address implementation questions
PREMIUM TIMES asked Senator Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South, what Safe Schools intervention or security reassessment followed the Mussa attack. Mr Ndume referred to the newspaper to earlier remarks he had made about the abductions, but did not respond to subsequent questions about Safe Schools implementation before this report was concluded.
Mr Balami forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES his earlier parliamentary interventions on insecurity in Mussa, Dille and Lassa, including the motions discussed earlier in this report. But they do not show what security agencies or education authorities actually did. Mr Balami also did not answer later questions about whether Safe Schools covered the affected schools or what action followed the House’s earlier resolutions.
What happened between Mussa and Lassa?
The sequence is clear.
On 20 February 2024, the House of Representatives raised recurring attacks in Mussa, Lassa and surrounding communities. On 15 October 2024, lawmakers again discussed insecurity affecting students in Mussa, Dille and Lassa and called for cooperation between education authorities and security agencies.
Mussa was attacked on 15 May 2026. Ten days later, Borno officials said they visited Mussa to reassess school security and ordered Safe Schools measures in affected schools. On 2 June, the House called for stronger protection for vulnerable schools following Mussa. On 29 June, Lassa was attacked.
The Borno Government says the security situation in Lassa was reviewed after Mussa. What it has not said is what the review found and what followed.
What risks were identified at Government Day Secondary School, Lassa?
What Safe Schools measures applied to the school?
Which of them were implemented before 29 June?
Who was responsible for putting them in place?
Neither the Borno State Government nor the federal Safe Schools coordinating centre has answered PREMIUM TIMES’ questions about the status of the two schools or any intervention in Askira-Uba.
At the time the local education authority supplied its latest figures, only 56 of the LGA’s 113 primary schools were functioning. Dozens of children abducted from Mussa and Lassa remain in captivity. Their families want them home.
The events between the two attacks leave one further question for the authorities: after a school’s security is reassessed and protective measures are ordered, who ensures those measures are actually carried out?
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