SOLDIERS opened fire, on Thursday, when suspected thugs hijacked trailers loaded with foodstuff in the Suleja area of Niger State.
Alhassan Abdullahi, a witness, told our correspondent that many trailers coming from Abuja and heading for Kaduna were blocked by the hoodlums who burnt tyres on the road.
He said many bags of food stuffs, especially rice, were stolen before soldiers arrived the scene.
“It took intervention of soldiers who arrived the scene and started firing gun shots in the air to scare the hoodlums away.
But even with that, many of them went away with bags of rice and cartons of spaghetti and other food items.”
“We learnt commercial motorcycle riders are also planning a protest. They would have done it since yesterday but we didn’t know what stopped them,” he said.
The development comes amid the nationwide hardship that has triggered protests in different parts of the country.
On February 16, leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared a two-day nationwide mass protest for February 27 and 28 .
Joe Ajaero, NLC president, stated this at Labour House, Abuja, during an emergency session.
Ajaero said the decision to protest was taken after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum earlier issued to the Federal Government over the nationwide hardship.
This newspaper reports that the ultimatum was issued to press the demands for reforms to address the current hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Last week, the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, expressed fear that with millions of Nigerian youths left without jobs and food, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
