On Friday, March 1, hundreds of villagers from Wurna village in Kurfi Local Government Area ignited fires and blocked the Katsina-Dutsinma road in protest at the area’s recurring banditry attacks and killings.
Platinum Times observed vehicles and passengers on the highway being forced to detour along bush roads connecting Dutsinma to the rest of the state and country.
Abdulkarim, a peasant among the demonstrators, told The Nation that his village had been besieged by bandit raids for four days, leaving them in a perpetual state of unrest.
When The Nation called ASP Abdullahi Aliyu, the Police Public Relations Officer, at Katsina Police Headquarters, he promised to confer with the Kurfi division’s DPO before responding.
However, as of the date of this report, no updates on the incident had been received.
As of 2 p.m. this afternoon, security presence in the region was limited, with irate Wurna villagers taking advantage of the situation to obstruct vehicles and disrupt various alternative routes for trapped visitors.