The women who protested in Minna over the rise of foodstuff and high cost of living clarified that hunger prompted their leadership of the protest last week, emphasizing that they acted independently.

Speaking on Monday, February 12, Hauwa Aliyu, one of the women detained for leading the protest, revealed that witnessing her children go hungry and drop out of school motivated her to participate in the demonstration.

She said: “It is just because of the situation in Nigeria, the price of food is high. Nobody sent us, it was hunger that pushed us to protest. Food was the main reason for the protest. As mothers, we cannot stay and continue seeing our children hungry, that is why we decided to protest.”

Aliyu, who spoke on behalf of the other women who protested, apologized to the state governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, and his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba asking for their forgiveness for any damage the protest may have caused properties.

Another woman who gave her name as Mama Abba said that they had no problem with the government but the hunger in the land was much and needed people who would speak out.

She said: “Since we do not have the opportunity to see the Governor one-on-one, we decided on the peaceful protest to communicate our plight to him. We apologize that the protest turned violent but we intended it to be peaceful. We want them to know that nobody sent us, we did it because of the hunger we felt.”

The women who lauded the Governor’s intervention and work across the state said that they are awaiting the response of the Governor in terms of reduction in foodstuff, providing resources so that their children can go back to school, and provision of jobs for their children who have completed their schooling.

“We appreciate the Governor. He is the man of the people and they are in support of what he is doing. We are proud of him and what he is doing. He should not be annoyed with our protest, we just went out for a peaceful protest, we didn’t send any of the boys to be violent we meant our own to be peaceful.

“We want the reduction of fuel and prices of food. And we want jobs for our children and we want our children to go back to school as several of them have dropped out,” she said.

It would be recalled that women in Minna last week Monday staged a protest over the rise in food prices blocking the Minna-Bida road and the Kpakungun area.

After the protest, the Niger State Police Command arrested three of the women and 22 youths for leading the protest.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, the protesters had deliberately refused to clear the road for public use despite the presence of Police patrol teams led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, DCP Shehu Umar Didango, and the presence of the Deputy Governor of Niger State, Comrade Yakubu Garba.

“The Police adopted minimum force to disperse the protesters who turned violent by attacking the Police with dangerous weapons such as stones, bottles, sticks, cutlasses and damaged Police patrol vehicles and parts of the Kpakungu Division roof.

“In the course of this, the Police arrested the initiator of the protest, one Aisha Jibrin aged 30 years, Fatima Aliyu aged 57 years, Fatima Isyaku aged 43 years all of Soje ‘A’ of Kpakungu area of Minna, and twenty-two other miscreants with the following dangerous weapons; a bench and a stick used as a barricade, three knives, one scissors, one cutlass, one saw blade, one iron pipe, four other sticks, two wraps of Indian hemp and charms,” he noted.

The women were released a day after their arrest as the state government granted them administrative bail. (The Nation)

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