By
Anas Sani Anka
If someone should narrate to me his experiences along Gusau-Zaria highway of similar magnitude of which I have experienced this morning I think I will doubt him.
I left Gusau as early as 7:00am to catch up with my 2:00pm
meeting in Abuja together with my driver and one of my aides when we were
stopped shortly at Tazane that bandits have blocked the highway.
As if it were a joke, we waited to see what the military and
police mounting checkpoints along that highway would do to clear the road, but
the story changes when we began to hear sounds of gunshots at close range to
our location.
We decided to turn to Kwatarkwashi thinking it was safer but
the process of turning back became frustrating since the bandits moved toward
us riding motorcycles with deadly weapons firing gunshots all over
The situation scared many of us and in the process of
running away from our Tazane location stray-bullet hits one of the passengers
of a commercial vehicle standing with us and from their majority of us
abandoned their vehicles and run beer-footed to the nearest police checkpoints
before Kwatarkwashi.
To our surprise as we approached the checkpoints the police
and indeed the officials of the FRSC managing a checkpoints also kick-started
their operational vehicles and quickly moved toward Kwatarkwashi.
We challenged the police why can’t they go to the scene to
clear the road one of them replied me “for where?”.
As if it were something that may end soonest we waited for
over an hour without any positive news of road clearance until after like
another 20 minutes when we saw women from Tazane community running toward
Kwatarkwashi that the bandits have eventually entered Tazane and they are
shooting anyone sighted.
We became scared again, but later on two military armor
tanks and two Hilux full of operatives of community protection guards came in and approached the scene with courage
and confidence.
It took them another (20) minutes of fire exchange to be
able to clear the highway and that I learned was achieved with the military
re-enforcement from Tsafe axis.
The sounds of gunshots ringing on the air tell all of us
that Zamfara has merely turn to states like Somalia because one will wonder how
this tragedy can happened right in Tazane few kilometers to Gusau the seat of
power.
WHAT MAY BE THE TARGET OF THE BANDITS?
According to the information we gathered, the group of the
bandits was led by Dogo Gide and the operation was purely targeted at the
Setraco site engineer one white man for that matter.
I learned that two of the operational vehicles of the
Setraco company carrying security guards for the foreign site engineer were
damaged in the course of fire exchange between the security guards of the white
man mostly soldiers and police as well as the bandits.
Some community members at Tazane said, they came with over
thirty motorcycles three per one and well armed since last night and waited for
the white man and his team to resume work early morning today.
One of the Setraco vehicle white painted Hilux Toyota
escaped to Kwatarkwashi with busted tires courtesy of gunshot from the
bandits while the other one was
abandoned a meter away from Tazane with bullet holes all over it's body.
As at the time we were passing through the scene after the
road was cleared, all the operational trucks of the company were abandoned on
the site where the work was ongoing while military operatives had beeped up
security around the scene.
The operational staff of the comoany run beer-footed to
Kwatarkwashi looking highly scary.
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR OBSTACLES OBSERVED.
To say the fact, what happened on that highway today is a
serious embarrassment and a clear indication that the authorities are really
not serious in ending this banditry issue.
The hours we spent, and the social media alarm raised by
many of us at the scene and even those who shared our posts are adequately
enough for the authorities to come to the aide of the commuters trapped on that
road.
Honestly one could not believe that bandits can take over
that ever busy highway Gusau-Zaria for close to two hours without the
authorities responding adequately to the bandit threats.
No matter the excuses, the tragedy along that highway calls
for the government of the state of Zamfara and indeed the security agencies to
take decisive measures to end the suffering of the people on that road.
It has really become a daily occurrence and people no longer
have confidence that government is ready to secure that road, and it has become
a permanent embarrassment especially to the government of the state of Zamfara.
One will continue to wonder what the retinue of the military
and police checkpoints mounted on that road are meant for?
In all honesty and with all sense of seriousness the
Governor of Zamfara State Dauda Lawal should hold a special security meeting to
revisit the security arrangements made purposely for that highway because
citizens and visitors passing through that road have a bitter story to tell
which has direct consequential effects to image and reputation of the state.
It is our prayer that Governor Dauda Lawal will take this
matter of Gusau -Zaria highway earnest.
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