It has been one year since terrorists abducted 137 students from LEA School, Kuriga, in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.

To mark the period of freedom that has not been punctuated by another terror attack, the survivors gathered on their school premises during the week to take pictures and videos of themselves.

FIJ obtained some of these materials and spoke with the teachers who discussed life after the incident.

Some of these pictures are attached to this story with the children’s faces covered as they are all minors.

The teachers themselves are part of the civil service in the employ of the state government, and they spoke with FIJ on condition of anonymity.

READ MORE: SPECIAL REPORT: Kaduna Gov’t Had 5 Years to Prevent Abduction of 137 Kuriga Schoolchildren but Failed

”It is already one year since the abduction, and the state government has resettled the students back in the school,” one of the teachers told FIJ.

FIJ earlier reported that the government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) collaborated to refurbish the school and provide homeschooling for the children while the building was undergoing renovation.

”The abduction happened last year on March 7, and since then we have not experienced any other attack,” another teacher told FIJ.

“In the pictures and videos, you’ll see students wearing different uniforms because they are in different classes. Some of them were in JSS2 last year, and they are now in JSS3.”

The teachers explained that prior to last year’s incident that claimed the life of Abubakar Isah, the school’s principal, several other attacks had occurred.

Without a police post or access to network service providers, the community lost at least five members of the teaching staff to terror attacks between 2017 and 2024. Other staff exited the community in fear.

Upon the abductees’ release on March 24, the police set up a post and the federal government funded security efforts in the area for the first time in at least nine years.

The Kuriga abduction remains Nigeria’s most recent mass abduction of schoolchildren. Before it, several similar abductions occurred in Zamfara, Borno and several other states.