Hardship: Fresh Protest Erupts In Niger After Arrest Of 25 People
…..We’ll open reserves to address rising food costs – FG
…Ignore Nationwide Protests Over Hardship At Your Peril, APC Chieftain Warns FG
Residents of Suleja in Niger State have taken to the street to register their displeasure over the high cost of living in the country.
Wednesday’s protest is coming after a similar protest in Minna, the state capital just two days ago.
Suleja, the commercial nerve centre of Niger State, is only a few kilometres away from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
An eyewitness, Mr. Yazid Abubakar, who spoke to Our Correspondent by telephone, said the protesters stormed the popular Moroko Road where the biggest market is located in the town.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as “Leadership is all about improving the life of the masses,” and “Nigerians are suffering, stop the hardship now,” among others.
Some women and youths in their numbers took to the street and blocked the Kpagungu axis of Minna-Bida Road in the Niger State capital city on Monday, protesting against hunger and the high cost of living.
The women, carrying a placard with the inscription “No food, we are dying of hunger”, demanded a better condition of living and a reduction in the cost of living for the citizenry.
They accused political officeholders of insensitivity to their plight as they lamented their inability to feed even once a day.
The protest had caused traffic gridlock on the ever-busy Minna-Bida Road, which is a link road to the South-West part of the country from the North-Central.
Responding, Niger State Police Command clamped down on 25 protesters.
On Wednesday, Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun, confirmed the arrest of one Aisha Jibrin, the initiator of the protest, and 24 other suspects.
The earlier protest forced President Bola Tinubu to order a food intervention to check the shortage of food in the country.
FG: We’ll open reserves to address rising food costs
Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, says the federal government is planning to unlock the national food reserves to ameliorate the effect of food inflation on the citizenry.
On Monday, some residents of Minna, capital city of Niger state, blocked major roads in the metropolis to protest the rising cost of living in the country.
A similar protest was staged in Kano hours later.
On Tuesday, a presidential committee on emergency food intervention met at the presidential villa.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, Idris said the government is very concerned about what Nigerians are going through.
“Of course, this meeting is not by itself exhaustive. It is going to continue tomorrow and the day after,” he said.
“Now, some of these will involve unlocking the food that is available in most of the storage facilities around the country.
“You know that the federal ministry of agriculture has some food reserves. That is going to be made available to Nigerians.
“The government is also talking to major millers and major commodity traders, to also see what is available in their stores, to open it up, so that government will provide some intervention and make this food available to Nigerians.”
Idris said the government has noticed that there is sufficient food in the country which is being hoarded on the basis of the depreciation of the naira.
“Government will not fold its arms and see the way Nigerians are suffering in terms of the availability of these food items,” he said.
“So I want to plead with you to understand with the government. By the time these meetings are concluded, we’ll be able to issue a definite statement on what the position of government is in this regard.
“But all I can say is that discussions are ongoing, and very soon a solution is in sight for Nigerians.”
Ignore Nationwide Protests Over Hardship At Your Peril, APC Chieftain Warns Tinubu
Former national vice chairman (North West) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has asked President Bola Tinubu to ignore the mass protests over high cost of living at his peril.
In a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, Lukman, a former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), warned that if the issues were not addressed, mass protests would engulf the entire country in no distant time.
He said, “As it is now, the renewed hope agenda of our party has been floated. Like the Naira exchange rate, Renewed Hope is being exchanged for Renewed Anger. The value is becoming more and more provocative to citizens.
“If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party. Even more depressing was the statement issued by Mr. Felix Morka, our National Publicity Secretary alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests.
“For Mr. Morka to issue such a very dishonest statement points to only one thing that the leadership of our party has completely lost it and at this rate their political utility value is zero. This clearly suggest that even the old pretence about being progressive has been thrown to the dogs.
“How can we be talking of opposition sponsoring protests in the strongholds of the APC? Both Minna and Kano are strong holds of APC. In the case of Minna, Niger State, APC is the ruling party. Kano is the home state of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC National Chairman.
“To suggest that any opposition party could mobilise citizens to protests our government is already defeatist. The hard reality is that these protests are logical responses to the realities facing Nigerians.
“If these realities continue unattended to, these protests will spread like bush fire across every part of the country within a very short period. No one should be deceived, these are justifiable protests, which tests the responsiveness of our party, our leaders and above all our democracy. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may wish to ignore them at their own peril.”
