Travellers want patrols as robbers infest Maiduguri-Monguno road

Daredevil robbers suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents reportedly attacked travellers along the Maiduguri to Monguno road and carted away valuables.

For that reason, travellers have called on troops to step up effort in preventing crime on the road.

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The thieves who mounted road blocks at different locations and lay in wait for advancing vehicles included adolescents who were said to be too young to engage in crime, one eyewitness has said.

A woman who was among travellers accosted by the rubbers last week said, “At first the thieves asked all passengers to get off  their vehicle before they collected our monies, shoes and other valuables.

“Some of the thieves are looking frail and few are immature and too early to leave their parents; if not for the gun they carried, majority of us are strong enough to overpower them.”

But when the highwaymen could not get enough from the passengers, they searched every part of the vehicle and tore the vehicle’s ceiling covering leather, looking for cash, before “we were freed,” she stated.

She said troops should provide protection to travellers against attacks.

Another witness who identified himself as Ahmad, said the armed men who intercepted vehicles, “at about six scenes on the road daily were certainly insurgents.

“Exactly three weeks ago, they stopped our vehicle and collected our monies and phones.

“The very next day, they attacked other vehicles and collected the monies on the passengers.

“One of the victims, a trader, who appeared to be deeply shocked, when they arrived in Maiduguri, said the robbers went way with his last savings and that they even directed some passengers to strip off their clothes before they took them away.”

Yet, another traveller at Baga Park in Maiduguri said the situation on the Maiduguri-Monguno road was getting somewhat out of the hand because the barricades set up by the suspected insurgents to rob people started “few kilometers,” away from Maiduguri and apparently a cantonment area.

He said some travellers were shot dead by the armed men after they were dispossessed of their valuables.

“The problem had become so severe that authorities must adopt measures to protect  travellers.”

When contacted, Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NUTRTW), Baga Branch, Babagana Zanna, confirmed the ‘almost’ daily occurrence of robberies along the road and said commercial vehicles would not ply ‘there’ if the attacks persist.

He pleaded for more security patrols along the road.