Youths barricaded the Suleja/Abuja highway in the early hours of Thursday and hijacked trailers loaded with bags of rice, cartons of spaghetti, and other food items.
A resident, Abubakar Abdullahi, informed newsmen that many trailers coming from Abuja and heading towards Kaduna were blocked by the hoodlums who set tires on fire on the road.
According to sources, several bags of rice and cartons of spaghetti were taken by the youths before the intervention of soldiers who arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd.
“It took the intervention of soldiers who arrived at the scene and started firing gunshots in the air to scare the hoodlums away.
“But even with that, many of them went away with bags of rice, cartons of spaghetti, and other food items,” he added.
“We learned that commercial motorcycle riders are also planning a protest. They would have done it since yesterday, but we didn’t know what stopped them.”
The development comes amid the nationwide hardships that have triggered protests in different parts of the country.
Recall that last month, residents of Minna and Suleja staged a protest to denounce the current hardships being experienced by Nigerians as a result of the high cost of food items and other things.
Similar protests occurred in Kano, Kogi, and Katsina states over the incessantly high cost of living.
Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared a two-day nationwide mass protest scheduled to start on February 27 and 28.
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On February 16, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared a two-day nationwide mass protest for February 27 and 28.
In a public forum, the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, expressed fear that with millions of Nigerian youths left without jobs and food, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.