Niger Catholic School Teacher Reveals Horrific Encounter As Bandits Put Gun In My Daughter’s Mouth

Martha Mathias, a teacher at St. Mary Catholic School Papiri in Niger’s Agwara local government area, described how her daughter’s courage prevented her and the other staff members and students from being kidnapped.
According to Mathias, one of the bandits put a gun to her daughter’s head and then put it in her mouth to stop her from pursuing Martha and the husband, who were already bound by the bandits.

The teacher also stated that the bandits’ leader told his boys to abandon the girl and her daughter after witnessing the girl’s bravery.
As a primary school teacher, Mathias lives on the school grounds.

“We heard the cry of children calling for help around one in the morning. I was about to go outside when my husband said I should lay down and wait for him to check and he came back to say they were Bandits,” she remembered.

“They asked the kids where their parents were when they had finished gathering them, and the kids replied that they didn’t have parents here because they were in school,” he continued.
Mathias continued to describe her experience by saying, “They now say where are your teachers and they now pointed at the rooms they now started with the matron, they went to her room and then to our room, they now tied my husband’s hands and carried him away.”

She said, “They later returned and said that I should come out.” I told them to let me see my child when she began to scream as I was ready to leave.

“So when I was about to follow them, my daughter started crying that she would follow daddy and mummy. They pointed a gun at her, but she insisted that she must follow us. In the process, they said they should leave us, which is how they left us and took my husband with them,” the woman claimed.

Reverend Sister Felicia Gyam, who also described her experience, recalled that shortly after midnight, they heard numerous cars and motorcycles passing through the school’s grounds. Suddenly, they began to hear haphazard knocks on the school’s gates as the kids cried out for assistance.

According to the reverend sister, they pulled some kids into hiding inside the school right away, and fortunately, the bandits were unable to reach some of them.

“We were confused looking for the key to the other gates, we heard knocks and cries from the other children, who came with many motorcycles, so what we did was make sure that we found a way to make sure the children who weren’t in danger were taken to a safe place,” she stated.

The reverend sister remarked, “We could hear the security man running and saying something we could not hear clearly, and they later drove off.”