DSS Arrests Suspected Arms Couriers Over Niger Attack

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested five suspected arms couriers, including two Nigerien nationals, for their alleged role in supplying weapons to the gunmen who kidnapped nearly 300 students and staff from the St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri village, Niger State, in November last year.
From a security source privy to the arrest, 15 AK-103 rifles, 15 magazines, and 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition were recovered during the operations. The arrests, according to the secret police, are seen as a major breakthrough in unearthing the circumstances that led to the Papiri school abduction. With the arrest of the suspected couriers of arms, the DSS disclosed that the source of the investigation into the attack and how it was carried out has reached a milestone.
Sources knowledgeable with the operation disclosed that Yusuf Mohammed, also known as Bature, a suspected member of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, was arrested with his alleged accomplice, Mubarak Ibrahim, on the Zaria-Kaduna Highway while reportedly on their way to collect a consignment of arms for their commanders.
The sources said the arrest led operatives to Goni Ibrahim, described as an international arms courier from the Diffa Region of the Niger Republic, and his alleged accomplice, Tukur Sani. Security sources disclosed that the weapons were concealed in a blue vehicle used by the suspects. Recovered items included 15 AK-103 rifles, 15 magazines, and 1,434 rounds of live ammunition.
The sources further revealed that days after the initial arrests, another suspected member of the alleged arms-trafficking network, Alhaji Adamu, also known as Gado Banufe, was apprehended in Yauri, Kebbi State, where he was also involved in supplying weapons across the Kebbi axis. Initial investigations, security sources further disclosed, indicate that the five suspects served as arms couriers to the gunmen responsible for the November 21, 2025, attack on St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri.
The attack occurred in the early hours of that day when dozens of heavily armed gunmen riding motorcycles stormed the Catholic primary and secondary boarding school, rounding up students and teachers at gunpoint. About 50 pupils reportedly escaped in the chaos that followed, while more than 250 others were marched for days into the Kainji Lake Reserve forest, where they were held captive for weeks before their eventual release.