,,,,,Debunk governor’s claims.
Cc). Thenetwork.
By correspondent in Minna.
Youths in Minna, capital of Niger state, north central Nigeria, have debunked claims by the Governor Mohammed Umar Bago that protesters who barricaded exit and entry points into Minna, on Monday morning were looters waiting to corner trailers of food items from the south to northern beneficiaries.
Some of the youth who spoke with our correspondent in separate interview traced the root causes of the protest to the daily rise in cost of living in the state and Nigeria at large.
They argue that the protesters were also angered by the level of insecurity in the state and the country generally,a development they said had made life miserable for the ordinary Nigerians, hence their decision to defy the early morning cold harmattan to draw the attention of the government to their plight.
According to them,farmers can no longer go to their farms, children forced out of school because parents can no longer pay school fees, armed bandits, ritualists and kidnappers dictating the pace along highways which today is no longer safe as citizens now live at their mercy.
The youths carrying placards with different inscriptions indicating, “We are dying of hunger. Good stuff is no longer affordable for the common man. This APC government has brought so much pains and hardship to Nigerians. Armed bandits have taken over Nigeria. Enough is Enough”.
Our correspondent recalls that Governor Bago, while addressing journalists on the event that jolted Nigerlites,causing uneasy calm among residents, said the protesters,mostly women and youths, laid siege on the highway to loot northern states bound trailers of food stuff from the south.
Bago, who further claimed that some people had alerted the women who immediately mobilized and blocked the highways as early as 7:a.m before they were joined by some youths said, “Yhey were told that a trailer loaded with some essentials was heading towards Minna and had planned to loot the items and that was why they decided to block the roads”.
The state government, he said, was already looking at possibilities of addressing hunger and hardship, adding however that some arrests had been made in connection with protest, adding the suspects,if found culpable would would face the full wrath of the law.
Governor Bago who nonetheless attributed the rise in the price of food stuff to the activities of middle men whom according to him traverse the local markets markets to buy, hoard food items and possibly export them to neighbouring countries assured that something will be done urgently to avoid a repeat.
Edited by Dawud Ahmed.
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