THE federal highway linking Gusau to Kaduna State was, on Thursday, blocked by hundreds of women protesting incessant bandits’ attacks in Zamfara State.
The women were from the Tsafe Local Government Area of the state.
The ICIR understands that the protest paralysed vehicular movement and left many commuters stranded on the ever-busy road.
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Speaking with newsmen, the women lamented that they had been left at the mercy of the terrorists who attacked them at will and raped some of them.
“I have to join the protest because the authorities are not doing anything to protect us from this hopeless situation,” one Talatu Sani was quoted by the Punch to have said.
She said she left her village of Cediya because the bandits often went to the village to rape women and steal their food and animals.
The protest is coming after President Muhammadu Buhari claimed his administration had taken steps to obliterate the activities of bandits.
Buhari had, in his goodwill message to Muslims across the country on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Maulud celebration, claimed that increased activities of the armed forces, Police Force and intelligence agencies had curbed banditry, noting that they had effectively responded to the security challenges in the nation.
According to him, increased cooperation and collaboration from the citizenry, coupled with reinvigorated, dynamic, and energised Police, security and military leadership, was helping the administration score more victories against terror, criminality, and economic sabotage.
He suggested to journalists and media houses to stop reporting about insecurity in the country, urging them to start writing about ‘declining insecurity.’
On Sunday, the terrorists attacked unarmed and innocent citizens in Goronyo town, the headquarters of Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto and killed more than 30 persons.
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