•Shops, business places shot down, as police arrests masterminds
From John Adams, Minna
Three days after women and youths blocked major highways in Minna, Niger State capital, to protest the hardship and rising cost of food stuffs, another protest has erupted in Suleja, headquarters of Suleja Local Government Area.
Suleja is one of the four most populated urban cities in the state, and host to majority of low income earners working in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
As early as 7am, the protesters, mostly youths, blocked the major road leading to Abuja, around the popular Cantomer Bridge in Suleja town, causing heavy vehicular traffic for several hours.
The placards-carrying youths said they were protesting the hardship and high cost of food items in the market, adding that the situation had become unbearable.
They marched through the major road enroute the Emir Palace roundabout and terminated at the general hospital junction.
A similar protest on Monday in Minna, the state capital, brought businesses and commercial activities to a standstill for several hours before anti-riot policemen were deployed to bring the situation under control.
Governor Umar Mohammed Bago, while reacting to the protest in Minna on Monday at a media briefing at the Government House, said the protesting women and youths had laid siege to the highway with the intention to loot a trailer suspected to be carrying food stuffs from the south.
He claimed that some people had alerted the women, who immediately mobilised and blocked the highways as early as 7am before they were joined by the youths, adding that they were told that a trailer loaded with some essentials was heading towards Minna and had planned to loot the items, hence, the decision to block the roads.
He disclosed that a number of arrests have been made in connection with the protest, stressing that the government was equally looking at various ways to address the current hardship, and the rise in the price of food stuff in the market.
However, the state government is yet to comment on the latest protest in Suleja even as the youths have vowed to return to the road if nothing was done to bring the situation under control before the start of the Ramadan fasting.
Meanwhile, the Niger State Police Command said it has arrested the masterminds of last Monday peaceful protest in Minna, 34-year old Aisha Jibrin and 24 others.
In a statement yesterday in Minna, the police command’s public relations officer, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, gave names of other suspects to include Fatima Aliyu (57), and Fatima Isyaku (43), among others, all of Soje ‘A’ in Kpakungu area of Minna.
Wasiu disclosed that during interrogation, Jibrin claimed that she was not aware that her action was illegal by mobilising over 100 women and miscreants to block the highway for a violent protest. She, however, said she informed one youth leader, Hassan, in the area, who promised to inform the police of their plan to protest, but did not do so.
According to the Police PRO, “All suspects have been taken to the SCID Minna for investigation and they will be charged to court for prosecution.”