The Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has officially stated that 25 individuals have been apprehended in connection with a recent demonstration in Minna, Niger State.
The demonstrators chose to obstruct the highly trafficked Minna-Bada Road and Kpakungu roundabout on Monday as a means of expressing their grievances regarding the rapidly increasing costs of food across the nation.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Wasiu Abiodun, the spokesperson for the Niger State Command of the Force, reported the arrest of Aisha Jibrin, who was identified as the instigator of the protests, along with a few others described as troublemakers.
The statement said: “It could be recalled that on 5/2/2024 at about 0700hrs, a large number of women and miscreants mobilised themselves and blocked Minna-Bida road and Kpakungu Roundabout, claiming to be protesting against increase in food prices, causing major obstruction on the highway and deprived motorists, travellers, and other road users from gaining access to attend to their lawful businesses.
“The Command immediately drafted police patrol teams led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations DCP Shehu Umar Didango, to the scene, and after much persuasion by the police, the protesters deliberately refused to clear the road for public use, while His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Niger State, Com. Yakubu Garba, equally availed himself at the scene and addressed the group, yet they turned deaf ears and chose to be violent.
“However, the police adopted minimum force to disperse the protesters who turned violent by attacking the police with dangerous weapons such as stones, bottles, sticks, cutlasses, and damaged police patrol vehicles and parts of the Kpakungu Division roof.
“In the course of this, the police arrested the initiators of the protest one Aisha Jibrin 30yrs, Fatima Aliyu 57yrs, Fatima Isyaku 43yrs all of Soje ‘A’ of Kpakungu area of Minna, and twenty-two other miscreants with the following dangerous weapons.”
