Banditry: Travellers stranded as Niger residents protest abductions, block highway
August 9, 2026 2:30 pm
Mokwa-Bida highway. CREDIT: NAN
It was a harrowing tale of hardship for commuters on the ever-busy Mokwa-Bida highway as protesters blocked the road over claims of persistent banditry.
The Mokwa-Bida highway is a critical federal road corridor over 100 kilometres long, serving as a vital link for motorists travelling from the Southwest to the North.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, who was at the scene, reports that all entry points into Mokwa were blocked by the angry protesters.
NAN gathered that many travellers had been stranded since Saturday night.
One of the protesters, Saliu Mohammed, claimed that suspected bandits recently abducted 15 residents of the community.
This could not be independently verified.
He alleged that security agencies had not been able to rescue the victims.
Mohammed vowed that the protest would be sustained until the victims were rescued.
A commuter heading to Abuja from Ilorin, Joy Amaechi, lamented that she had spent five hours at Mokwa with no solution in sight.
She called for urgent government intervention to rescue the victims.
A driver with a popular mass transit company, Henry Nwachuckwu, said he had arrived at Mokwa at about 7am on Sunday.
As of the time of filing this report at about 10:30am, the protesters had yet to leave the highway.
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