Security operatives in Niger State had a torrid time restoring normalcy in Suleja, after demonstrations by residents who trooped out to protest incessant abductions in the area turned awry. Unknown gunmen kidnapped another set of persons from their homes on Sunday.

Hundreds of aggrieved family members and other residents blocked the Abuja-Kaduna highway, carry placards and singing solidarity songs to calls government’s attention to their plight.

The demonstrations however turned violent when security forces sought to clear the marchers off the busy highway.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Wasiu Abiodun told Peoples Gazette on Monday that: “The protesters were dispersed at about 12:45 p.m., through the combined efforts of the police and the military.”

“Peace and free flow of traffic restored along Abuja-Kaduna Express road,” he stated, adding that “efforts to rescue the victims are being intensified.”

The spokesman had earlier in the day issued a release confirming the attack of residents of Angwan-wazobia in Gauraka area of Tafa LGA by unknown gunmen who abducted about six persons. 

As of the time of this report, families of those abducted are yet to be contacted by the abductors.

Narrating the aftermath of the kidnapping, the police said, “at about 6:35 a.m. of same date, some miscreants blocked both sides of Abuja–Kaduna expressway, protesting the recent cases of kidnapping in the community. The miscreants later extended the protest to Gauraka Police outpost, vandalised and set it ablaze.”

The Gazette had on Friday reported another abduction incident where no fewer than ten persons were kidnapped by bandits from their homes while beheading one other on Wednesday in Rafin Sanyin, also in Suleja. The kidnappers are demanding huge sums of ransom from each of the victim’s families.