Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has alleged that the Niger state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Dr. Bulus Yohanna, withheld information regarding last Friday’s abduction of students from St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area.

Onanuga made this allegation on Monday in an interview on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television

The presidential aide accused Yohanna of “playing games” with the incident and obstructing efforts by the authorities to determine the actual number of abducted students.

He dismissed earlier claims by the CAN chairman that 51 abducted students had been rescued, insisting that those students were never captured.

Onanuga further stated that the government remains uncertain about the number of missing students due to a lack of cooperation from the school and religious authorities.

“I learnt when the bandits came in the night, the students were running helter-skelter and some of them merely ran back to their homes.

“As at the moment, the authorities are in the dark as to how many people are really missing,” Onanuga said, adding that even security agencies had no clarity.