On Saturday, Gusau-Funtua Road was blocked by students from the Federal University in Gusau, Zamfara State, who were protesting the ongoing kidnappings of their schoolmates by bandits. This left motorists stuck.
A major road connecting Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna states was stopped by hundreds of students in the state capital, defying armed security officers.
Students who were protesting began marching from Damba to Sabon-Gida, the neighborhood next to the university’s main campus.
They claimed that on Friday night, five of their coworkers were abducted in the Damba region, a neighborhood outside of Gusau.
The second semester exams at the federal university are scheduled to start on Monday, but the protesting students claimed the exams wouldn’t go on as scheduled unless the colleagues who were kidnapped were released.
The students shouted, “No students, no exams!” in protest of their fellow students’ constant kidnappings.
An eyewitness described the kidnapping incident and went by the moniker Rejoice.
Recently, some university students have been abducted; some have since been freed, but others remain held captive.
The pupils requested assistance from the appropriate authorities since they were unable to focus on their schoolwork.
Students union representatives for the states of Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara urged the university administration to implement security measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Before the security officers forcibly dispersed the demonstrators, the furious students stopped the highway for a number of hours.
On the ground was one of the students who had reportedly been assaulted by security personnel.
Professor Muazu Abubakar, the university’s vice chancellor, who was also present at the protest site, turned down an interview request from Channels Television.
