Molly Kilete, Abuja
Hundreds of young men from Kano and Katsina states who tried to gain access into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Wednesday met the stiff resistance of soldiers of the 176 Guards Battalion mounting security checkpoint around the Giri/airport road.
The riders mostly youths between the ages of 18 and 45, drove in their motorcycles in a convoy like manner all the way from Kano and Katsina states without being detected by any of the security agencies until they got to the military check point at giri, in FCT near the university of Abuja.
The youth who tried to put strong resistance and tried to fight the soldiers for not allowing them access into the FCT, were however overpowered by the soldiers.
The incident which resulted to a gridlock on the ever busy routes, attracted villagers, motorists and other road users who hailed the soldiers for their act especially at this time when the country was battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The soldiers who gathered them at one spot, alerted the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and the FCT committee on COVID-19, who immediately deployed its personnel to the scene.
The minister of the FCT, Musa Bello, directed the FCT task force on COVID-19, to impound all the motorcycles of the intruders and racket them back to where they are coming from.
At the time filing this report, normalcy as gradually returning to the area as the security task force was already on ground alongside the police and other security agencies personnel.
Some of the youths who spoke in Hausa language said they were tuning away from their states because of COVID-19, which has been killing their people for some days now. They said they decided to come to Abuja because it was safer and lucrative for business.