How Scary Is Gusau-Zaria Highway?

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.