The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested five persons, including two Nigeriens, suspected to be arms couriers to gunmen who attacked St. Mary’s Catholic school in Papiri village, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State on November 21, 2025.
According to security analyst Zagazola Makama, a large cache of arms, including 15 AK rifles and 1434 rounds of live ammunition, were recovered from the two men.
One Yusuf Mohammed aka Bature, who is on the list of wanted members of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad aka Boko Haram terror organization and his accomplice, Mubarak Ibrahim were arrested on the Zaria Kaduna highway while on their way to collect a consignment of arms for their commanders.
A follow-up operation, continued the sources, led to the arrest of Goni Ibrahim, an international arms courier from Diffa Region, Niger Republic.
Arrested alongside Ibrahim was one Tukur Sani who was identified as his accomplice.
Security sources disclosed that, concealed in an unnamed blue car the arrested men were travelling in were 15 AK 103 rifles, 15 magazines and 1,434 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition.
Days after the arrests, yet another member of the arms courier syndicate, identified as Alhaji Adamu aka Gado Banufe, known to be supplying arms around the Kebbi axis, was arrested in Yauri, Kebbi State.
The security sources disclosed that preliminary investigations established that the five men served as arms couriers to the gunmen who carried out the November 2025 attacks on the Catholic boarding school in Papiri.
LIB reported that dozens of gunmen on motorcycles had in the wee hours of November 21, 2025, stormed the Catholic primary and secondary boarding school, rounding up students and teachers at gunpoint.
While about 50 of the children managed to escape in the chaos that greeted the attack, over 250 others were marched for days into the Kainji Lake Reserve forest.
After over a month after the attack, on December 21, 2025, the federal government and Niger state officials confirmed the rescue and safe return of the remaining 130 captives, with government officials confirming that not a single pupil remained in captivity.
