Police officers at Batsari Local Government of Katsina State on Thursday staged a protest over their unpaid allowances.
According to reports, the police officers took to the streets and blocked a major road linking to Batsari market.
The report added that soldiers eventually arrived at the scene to remove the barricade, a move that provoked the police and caused an exchange of verbal abuses before the intervention of the district head of Batsari, Alhaji Tukur Muazu Rumah.
“Yes, I am an eyewitness, they block [sic] our way when going for Batsari weekly markets, claiming that we won’t have a business today because the government has not paid them their allowances for six months,” a resident, Muhammad Wada Bakiyawa, said.
However, the state’s police spokesman, Gambo Isah, said the story was not true. “It’s fake news, disregard it, it’s not true,” he said when asked by SaharaReporters.
When Isah was told about the pictures and video of police officers mounting roadblocks and arguing with the army officers, he said mounting of the roadblock was normal in the area because of the high rate of banditry.
“If they mount a roadblock, are they not performing their duties?” he said. “That place, do you know it’s a bandit area? The police are working with the military there. There is a special operation ongoing. They are working together.”
