Residents of the Mairuwa community in the Faskari local government area of Katsina State took to the streets on Sunday to protest against constant attacks by suspected armed bandits in the area.
The protest, which began at 10:00 AM on Sunday, resulted in hundreds of angry youths blocking the popular highway linking travelers from the Gusau axis to Funtua and Kaduna.
According to a reporter, who was also caught in the hold-up caused by the protesters, it took some travelers more than two hours to navigate their way out of the protest scene.
The protest was reportedly triggered by the anger residents felt after suspected armed bandits invaded a nearby farm in Mairuwa and abducted over 100 people.
The source added that, apart from those abducted, the bandits also killed scores of other people during the incident.
Residents said that during the attack, efforts were made to gain the support of security agencies to thwart the attack, but these efforts failed.
The source added that the people of the Mairuwa community became aggrieved and decided to stage a protest to express their anger over being abandoned by the government.
One of the travelers, Malam Sani Argungu, said he was traveling to Kaduna from Kebbi but was stranded for several hours due to the protest.
He described the intensity of the frequent attacks against communities around Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara as worrisome, calling on governments at all levels to take necessary actions to secure the communities in the area.
Saturday’s attack came just a few weeks after the Katsina State government announced that it had perfected a peace accord with some bandits who opted to lay down their arms for peace to reign.
Surprisingly, the frequency of armed bandit attacks on communities in Katsina continues to be unbearable, threatening the peace of the people in the Katsina area.
As of 2:00 pm, military soldiers were deployed to the Mairuwa area to restore normalcy and clear the protesters for travelers to move freely, but they had to handle the situation with all forms of civility.
The road became “`motorable around 2:30 pm, even as the protesters refused to leave the scene of the protest.
