Following incessant kidnapping and other social vices that have become the order of the day in Juji community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, angry youths blocked the Kachia highway protesting what they called government non-challant attitude to their plights.
It took combined security forces of the Army, Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC) to disperse the angry youths who came out in their thousands and blocked the Kachia Highway on Saturday.
The youth who were protesting rampant cases of kidnapping in Juji community, marched from their community to Sabin Tasha where they blocked the highway for close to an hour.
They set up bonfires for about thirty minutes preventing free flow of traffic before the Kaduna Brigade Commander of the Nigerian Army in a convoy of about six trucks with armed soldiers, accompanied by policemen were able to disperse them.
The security forces appealed to them to go back to their community, assuring of adequate measures to protect them.
The youth leader of the community, Hosea Bawa, told newsmen that they embarked on a peaceful protest against increasing cases of kidnapping in their area.
After they were dispersed, the Army convoy moved on to Juji were they consoled the victim, Dr. Philip Ataga, whose wife and two children were kidnapped early Saturday.
At Dr. Ataga’s residence, he told newsmen that he got home past midnight to find out that the kidnappers went away with his wife and his son while a resident of the community was killed.
He said he was yet to be contacted by the gunmen to know if it is a case of kidnapping which the kidnappers require ransom before the victims could be released.
The security guard at the residence, Emmanuel Jatau, 21 years old from Kufena in Kajuru local government area told newsmen that he has been working in the house for two months.
“I was ironing clothes with the generator on. I was almost completing when I started hearing gunshots and I went to lock the gates and entered the room.
“There were exchanging of gunshots with policemen, trying to gain access to the compound. They broke through the fence and five of them entered the house.
“They escaped with the madam and the children and asked me to lie down. I escaped to one of my friend’s house and came back at dawn,” he explained.
He explained that the operation took place from around 11pm till about 2am.
