…as youths bearing placards storm streets, denounce govt
Some youths, on Monday morning, stormed the streets of Niger State to protest the current high cost of living in Nigeria.
The protesters carried wielded placards with various inscriptions such as ‘Enough is Enough’; ‘Stop Anti-Masses Policies’; ‘We Are Not Slaves In Our Country’; ‘Hardship Is Unbearable’, ‘Fuel Subsidy Must Be Back’, among others.
They marched on the streets while chanting anti-government slogans.
Some of the protesters were seen along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
In the past few days, the Federal and State governments have been making frantic efforts to stop the planned protest, warning that it could be hijacked by hoodlums and enemies of democracy to unleash terror on innocent citizens and destroy public and private property.
Only last week, Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago distributed welfare packages to residents of the state to prevent the protest.
Bago had also announced a N20,000 wage allowance for state and local government civil servants and ordered the immediate release of 50,000 metric tonnes of assorted grains to be sold at subsidised rates to mitigate the current economic hardship.
“We have over 100,000 metric tonnes of food in our reserves, out of which we will be releasing 50,000 metric tonnes to be sold at 50% of its present price. Before the end of the year, we will slash food prices by 90%,” he said.
The Governor also donated one Prado Jeep to each of the heads of security agencies in the state.
Although protest had been scheduled to kick off on August 1, some of organisers have said they would go in July.
Government and security agencies had yet to react to the Niger protest as of the time of filing this report.
