Insecurity: Tension on Abuja-Kaduna highway, youths on rampage

The Kaduna-Abuja transit corridor was thrown into pandemonium on Monday morning as youths went on rampage calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to end the rising kidnapping, banditry, and other manifestations of insecurity in the country, particularly, on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway. The youth barricaded the highway, giving rise to tension on that axis.

National Daily gathered that hundreds of youths who are resident in Gauraka, Tafa Local Government Area, Niger State, went on mass action, blocking the Abuja-Kaduna highway over the frequent kidnapping of people by bandits in rural communities in the state.

The angry youths burnt tyres on the highway, obstructing movement of vehicles on that axis of the highway.

The protesters repeatedly demand the Niger State government and Federal Government to tackle the insecurity crisis in their communities and put an end to the incessant kidnapping, killings, and destruction of property in the state and its environs.

The protesters were enraged by the invasion of a community and its environs by kidnappers on Saturday and Sunday taking away 15 persons and killing three persons.

There was phobia in the state after the innuendo that Boko Haram terrorists have infiltrated Gauraka community and several others, where they hoist their flags of Islamic State.

Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State had in April acknowledged and disclosed that Boko Haram terrorists hoisted their flags in some communities in the state, raising alarm that the FCT was not safe. It was highlighted that Gauraka is about five kilometres to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The Abuja-Kaduna highway has been a territory of incessant armed robbery before the bandits invaded the area and intensified kidnapping and killing of innocent citizens.

The Nigerian Army a few months ago deployed a team of female soldiers to the Abuja-Kaduna expressway to contain banditry and secure commuters on the road.