LAGOS, Aug 25 - President Bola Tinubu has ordered the military and other security agencies to carry out an immediate rescue operation after what residents say was a mass kidnapping in north-central Niger State last week.
An armed group circulated a video on Facebook and WhatsApp purportedly showing the captives. Residents who spoke about the clip said it depicted roughly 600 women, children and older people taken during an attack on a mosque in the state. The figure has not been independently verified, and if later confirmed it would place the incident among the largest mass abductions in Nigeria in recent years.
In its first public response, the presidency condemned the raid as cowardly and said the perpetrators would face justice. "Terror will not cow Nigeria. We will defend our people, protect our communities and uphold the sanctity of human life," Tinubu said in a statement accompanying his directive.
The president instructed security chiefs to provide regular updates on the rescue effort and to account for all those taken. His order directs coordinated action by the military and other security agencies to locate and recover the abducted individuals.
Mass kidnappings for ransom have become increasingly common in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria. Heavily armed criminal gangs frequently raid villages, schools and highways, and they often hold captives for weeks or months while demanding large ransoms. The groups have increasingly expanded operations beyond their traditional strongholds in the far north.
The circulation of the video and the claims about the number of people seized have heightened public concern and placed pressure on authorities to demonstrate an effective and timely response. The presidency has pledged oversight through regular progress reports from security leaders, but uncertainty remains around the precise number of abductees and the status of any rescue operations underway.
Contextual note: The account of events, the circulating video, the residents' estimate of about 600 abductees, the presidential statement and the direction for security chiefs to report regularly are the factual elements reflected in official statements and local reports. Independent verification of the total number of people taken was not available at the time of the presidency's statement.