At approximately 8:30 pm, a large group of armed Bandits stormed Greenfield University, a private institution located at Kasarami village along the Kaduna-Abuja Highway in Chikun LGA. The attackers shot sporadically, killing a staff member, Paul Ude Okafor, and abducted at least 22 people (14 female students, 6 male students, and 2 female staff). Most of the victims were female students, who were separated from male students and staff after the abduction. The troops of Operation Thunder Strike responded but did not make contact with the fleeing Bandits.
20 Apr 2021 · Kasarami, Kaduna, Kaduna
Deaths
6
Injured
0
Kidnapped
22
Total casualties
6
Perpetrators
Bandits
Response
The police, military, and Operation Thunder Strike personnel were deployed. The military did not engage the kidnappers directly. The Kaduna State Government maintained a firm “no negotiation, no ransom” policy, which contributed to the kidnappers’ execution of five students.
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Banditry, ransom economy, weak school security, rural vulnerability
Trajectory
The Greenfield kidnapping was the second mass abduction of students in Kaduna State in just over a month, following the Afaka kidnapping (39 students abducted on 11 March 2021). The attack led to a tragic new phase in the kidnapping crisis: the execution of hostages to enforce ransom. The refusal of the state government to negotiate, combined with the killing of students, forced parents to take matters into their own hands. Following the release, the parents accused the government of abandonment, noting that they had received no help from federal or state authorities.
Cycle notes
The abduction of students from Greenfield University directly echoed the Afaka kidnapping of 39 students on 11 March 2021 in Kaduna State and the 11 December 2020 abduction of 344 boys from Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State. All three incidents involved profit‑driven Bandits targeting schools and highlighted the deepening crisis of mass school kidnappings in northwestern Nigeria. The killing of five students marked a brutal escalation: the kidnappers executed three students on 23 April and two more on 26 April to pressure families into paying ransom. Parents reported paying a total of ₦180 million and providing ten new motorcycles, in direct contradiction of the Kaduna State Government’s “no‑negotiation, no‑ransom” policy. Governor Nasir El‑Rufai’s firm insistence on this no‑ransom stance and his description of the kidnappers as “vile entities” mirrored the position of the Katsina Government following the Kankara abduction, although the deliberate killing of abducted students represented a grim new precedent. The Greenfield University kidnapping foreshadowed the 7 March 2024 Kuriga school abduction (287 students) and the 27 October 2024 Kebbi mass abduction (25 schoolgirls), underscoring a persistent pattern of school kidnappings that the state has failed to suppress.
Pattern
Mass Abduction of Students
Related — Kidnapping
A series of Bandits attacks began on Mada community in Zamfara State. Armed men killed one vigilante and abducted seven residents during the raids.
Rev. Fr. John Mark Cheitnum and Rev. Fr. Donatus Cleopas were kidnapped by armed men while traveling to attend a parish function in Lere LGA, Kaduna State.
Bandits attacked Kwi community in Faskari LGA, Katsina State. They killed one person, injured scores, and rustled several animals.