Motorists plying the Gusau-Sokoto Road in Zamfara State were left stranded on Wednesday evening as armed bandits blocked the ever-busy highway with an intention to attack road users. 

The bandits, who blocked the road between Kukah Mai Rahu community and Mayanchi town around 7pm, forced motorists to pass the night in the bush.

The troops of Operation Hadarin Daji deployed to the area advised the commuters not to proceed with the journey because of the fear of bandits abductions.

One of the stranded commuters, Ibrahim Abubakar, told Channels Television that he was returning from Sokoto when he met the blockade by the military at Kwanga-Taama village, asking them not to continue with the journey.

“After we passed Talata-Mafara about 6:30pm, I noticed there were no vehicles coming and it’s very unusual because of how busy the road used to be. When we get to Kwanga-Taama village after Kukah Mai Rahu, the military who camped in the village, asked us not to proceed because bandits have blocked the road,” Abubakar said.

He added that “we left the military checkpoint this (Thursday) morning around 7am when the troops had proceeded to clear the road.”

“One of the military officers said the bandits came on 10 motorcycles with two persons on each bike carrying sophisticated weapons.”

The source also added that the soldiers told them that the bandits came out on revenge mission after five of them were neutralised by the troops some days ago.

The Gusau-Talata-Mafara Road used to be one of the safest roads to travel in Zamfara State but recently there has been pockets of attacks and abductions along the road.

Although there was no report of abduction during the period of the blockade, motorists appealed to the government to deploy more security personnel along the highway.