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Youths block highway, shops looted
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Normalcy has returned – Police
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There was early morning pandemonium in the Kpakungu area, a suburb of Minna, the Niger State capital, on Sunday when youths numbering over 100 took to the streets to protest the killing of one of them by members of the local vigilante. This brought commercial activities to a temporary halt for several hours, with early morning worshippers also stranded.
The protesting youths blocked the ever-busy Minna-Bida highway, thereby disrupting vehicular and tricycle movement, including commercial motorcycles.
The protests quickly degenerated into destruction of public property and looting of shops along the road as residents scrambled for safety.
During the protests, which lasted for over three hours, two unidentified youths were killed and several others sustained injuries.
It was gathered that the protesters were demanding justice over the killing of one of them the previous night by members of the local vigilantes in the area.
The local vigilantes, it was reliably gathered, had mobilised and responded to a distress call from the people in the area at about 10:30pm over violent conduct by a group of youths.
It was in the process of arresting the miscreants and bringing the situation under control that one of the youths, identified as Aliyu, was alleged to have been shot and killed by the vigilantes.
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Confirming the development, the state police command, in a statement in Minna on Sunday by the Public Relations Officer, SP Wasiu Abiodun, said the protest was triggered following the killing of Aliyu by local vigilantes.
According to the police, “On 3rd October 2026 at about 10.30pm, a report received indicated that a group of vigilante men mobilised to Kpakungu area to arrest some miscreants and in the process, one of the vigilante members shot Aliyu dead, which led to some protests within the area.”
Wasiu, however, disclosed that police patrol teams were mobilised to the location and normalcy was restored, while efforts were already ongoing to arrest the vigilante man who shot Aliyu, but regretted that in the early hours of today, Sunday, some of the miscreants mobilised and blocked the Minna-Bida highway to protest the killing.
He added that the protesters quickly moved towards Gbeganu area, another suburb of Minna, and attacked residents in the area and looted shops.
According to him, in the course of the protests, it was reported that two persons lost their lives, adding that “Police tactical teams were drafted to the area, the rioters were dispersed and the road was cleared for free flow of traffic.”
Youth restiveness has become a common phenomenon, especially in Minna, the state capital, with no week passing without one form of public disturbance or the other, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.
This latest incident is coming barely three weeks after 37 miners were killed in an NSCDC detention centre in Minna.
