Insecurity: El-Rufai warns protesting residents against blocking highways

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has warned communities around the Kaduna-Abuja road against blocking highways during protests.

According to a statement by Samuel Aruwan, the governor’s spokesman, el-Rufai said blocking of highways affects the activities of innocent citizens.

Aruwan said the governor gave the warning on Saturday when he visited communities affected by bandits’ attacks around the Kaduna-Abuja road in Chikun LGA.

“The Governor warned against blocking of roads, a practice he described as detrimental to the activities of innocent citizens whose movement is forced to a halt. He stressed that such actions would offer no solution, but only create panic and further breakdown of law and order,” the statement reads.

The warning comes after the recent blockage of the Kaduna-Abuja road by youths, who were protesting the persistent attacks on their communities.

Aruwan said the governor condoled communities across the state where citizens were killed within the last one week, and assured them of the government’s commitment to security of lives and property.

“He added that the government was aware of their plight, as conveyed in daily security reports from action agencies,” the statement reads.

“The Governor further assured the residents that the government is working resolutely, round the clock, with security agencies, in addressing the menace.”

Similarly, the Kaduna police command, in a statement, also warned against the blockage of the highways.

The police said it was not unmindful of the “security challenges faced by various communities in the state, occasioned by armed banditry and kidnapping, which the top management and government are doing everything possible to restore normalcy to the affected areas”.

The command also called on all stakeholders to be on the same page with security agencies to ensure that the enemies of the state are defeated, while warning that blocking highways “will be viewed seriously according to extant laws of the land”.