As early as 7:00am on Monday, angry youths in their hundreds took the street to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the worsening security challenges affecting Zamfara state and their respective communities in particular.
They are mostly from Kurya, Maguru, Kasuwar Daji, Yankaba and some part of Sabon Garin Kaura Namoda.
There were men, women and children among the protestors, and they had been on the streets for several hours.
They barricaded all entries from Gusau the capital city leading to the ancient city of Kaura Namoda, and they mounted illegal road blocks and pursued away the innocent commuters plying the road.
Report has it that, the protestors destroyed vehicles of innocent people who were on the road trying to reach their destination.
The Monday protest came barely two days after another one staged by the people at the neighboring Zurmi emirate council where they destroyed many valuable things at the emir’s personal residence.
One of the residents of Kurya Madaro interviewed by this medium said, “the protest was ignited by three major factors”.
One of them he said, the internally displaced persons in their hundreds are facing rejection by the people due to fear of the unknown.
“People are scared even bandits can pretend to be an IDP and cause serious problem to the people and because of this fear majority of the people in Kaura Namoda and its environ do not host or accommodate IDP’s”.
Secondly he said, “majority of the IDPs are not being offered houses for rent after they were chased away by the bandits from their respective communities.
“The condition of the IDP’s in Kaura Namoda is devastating, and the government has failed to provide a designated IDP camps all over the state and those with little means who are ready to rent at safer places are being rejected by the communities, so what do you want IDP’s to do he asked.
Another factor according to him is that, people are aggrieved hence government is more concern with the plight of the bandits than that of the innocent citizens who are mostly the victims of the deadly attacks.
Another person interviewed by this medium on condition of anonymity said, “people have been pushed to the wall and that it reached a point when majority of them have concluded that government can no longer provide protection to them and therefore are left with no option than to demonstrate to the whole world how bad their condition was”.
A humanitarian worker who is currently working in Shinkafi told this medium that “I was trapped in between Kasuwar Daji and Maguru and based on what we are hearing from the protestors it has shown a clear indication that the strategies the government is applying in fighting the criminality facing the state are not working, people are aggrieved and people are tired, and I think the government need to listen to its citizens at this point”.
He added that “the angry youth are irritated, and their action portrays the danger ahead. They were carrying local arms and some of them are chanting they are ready to die than to allow bandits ruins their lives”.
Another resident of Kaura who was trapped by the protest around Maguru said, “the youths have faced the armed security operatives with all sense of confidence and stood their ground by blocking the road at every strategic point”.
He said the armed police men deployed could not do anything as the protestors were challenging the police to shoot at them if that was their mission even as they insisted that the road must remain blocked.
It took the joint security operatives hours to plead with the protestors even as the district head of Kurya moved along with some of elderly persons in the community to plead with the protestors.
No life was lost to the protest,, but this medium was reliably informed that an unspecified number of security operatives were shot by the protestors.
It was also reliably gathered that the driver of a private car escaped with a gunshot as protestors fired multiple gunshots at his vehicle.
The protest was later suspended at around 5:00pm in the evening after several appeal by both the security operatives and other stakeholders.
Zamfara has been on the news for several months after its peace deal with the bandits proved to be inactive anymore as different stakeholders alleged.
Several communities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gusau, Maradun and Maru have been under armed bandits attack in recent times.
This is apart from dozens of other innocent people that have been under trend of abduction and kidnapping.
Over 70 persons including women and children were for instnce abducted in Bungudu local government area last week before the state government announced their release from captivity few days back after negotiation.
This is different from dictatorial scenarios which armed bandits initiated on the residents of the state.
Many of the local farmers especially those from Dansadau, Zurmi, Shinkafi and part of Maradun were asked to stay away from their farms or face a consequence of being killed or abducted.
Recently Zamfara State Commissioner for security Abubakar Justice Dauran accused the army og poor response whenever they were alerted by communities under attack.
Zamfara police command told TVC news that it hs arrested 15 persons in connection with the protest and recovered three locally made gun.
The police spokesperson in Zamfara SP Shehu Muhammad called on the parents to prevent their wards from participating in the act capable of undermining the security of the state.
But normalcy has been restored as the road blocks were dismantled and people are accessing the road from Gusau linking, Kaura Namoda, Birnin Magaji, Zurmi, Shinkafi and part of Katsina a d Sokoto.
