From: Ali Abare, Gombe
Travellers plying the Gombe-Yola road were, on Wednesday, stranded for several hours as hundreds of women from Shongom Local Government Area of Gombe State blocked the road in protest.
The aggrieved women, who poured on the road from Kulishe village, were protesting the arrest of their husbands by police authorities over recent attacks on Kufai community in Billiri Local Government Area which led to the death of a police sergeant.
Confirming the incident to Daily Sun, on Thursday, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mary Mallum, said the men were arrested for taking part in the recent communal clash in Billiri.
The protesting women set bonfires in the middle of the road, shunning all entreaties to open up the highway.
Though Mallum could not ascertain the exact number of men so far arrested, she said police authorities were on top of the situation in Kaltungo with a view to restoring ing peace to the troubled area.
“Yes, I can confirm to you that the men were arrested over the recent crisis at the area. Now, I can’t say how many were arrested but I will inform you as soon as I have the details,” the PPRO said.
The Kulishe women in their hundreds, sat in the middle of the Gombe-Yola road in Kaltungo town, headquarters of Kaltungo Local Government Area demanding for the release of their husbands, thereby hindering the smooth flow of traffic.
It was gathered that it took the intervention of a combined team of soldiers and policemen at the scene of the protest to break the cordon set by the women and to allow commuters access to the road.