With about 72 hours to the planned hunger protest in Nigeria, a heavy presence of Nigerian soldiers has been observed around the nation’s seat of power, Abuja on Monday.
The soldiers mounted a roadblock at Sani Abacha barracks before the popular AYA roundabout.
Commuters plying the Keffi-Abuja expressway were on Monday left stranded after military officers barricaded the highway to conduct a stop-and-search operation on vehicles entering the nation’s capital.
Civil servants and traders who work in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) live outside the city centre in places such as Nyanya, Karu, Maraba and Masaka.
There has been anxiety and panic in the atmosphere as Some youths are planning a nationwide protest from August 1 against the rising cost of living and economic hardship in the country.
But fielding questions by journalists at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, on Thursday, during a media briefing, the Director of Defence Media Operations, DMO, Major-General Edward Buba said the military would come in to safe the situation if the police is overwhelmed. He warned the protest organisers to shelve their plans.
On the the Monday development, Security agencies have yet to explain the blockade that has caused a gridlock extending as far as Nyanya Bridge, more than 12 kilometres from the checkpoint.
Nor did any prior warning before to the action issued.
But, after hours of standstill, many of them were forced to return home.
