By Auwal Mohammed
Gombe (Nigeria) — Travellers plying the Gombe-Yola road in northeast Nigeria were on Wednesday stranded for several hours, as hundreds of women from Kaltungo and Shongom local government areas of Gombe State blocked the road in protest.
The aggrieved women who poured on the road from Kaltungo and Shongom were protesting the arrest of their husbands by police authorities last Monday over recent attacks on Kufai community in Billiri local government area which led to the death of a police sergeant.
Confirming the incident to Newsmen on Thursday, Police spokesperson, ASP Mary Mallum, said Kaltungo men were arrested for taking part in the recent communal clash in Billiri.
The women set bonfires in the middle of the road, shunning all entreaties to open up the highway.
Though the police could not ascertain the exact number of men so far arrested, ASP Mallum said they are on top of the situation in Kaltungo with a view to restoring 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 women in their hundreds, sat in the middle of the Gombe-Yola road in Kaltungo town, headquarters of Kaltungo Chiefdom 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.
