Musa Na Allah, Sokoto
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Sokoto State Council, on Wednesday staged a massive protest against the worsening insecurity ravaging Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, and Zamfara states, declaring that persistent banditry, killings, and abductions have plunged the North-West into fear, hunger, and despair.
The protest, led by the state NLC Chairman, Comrade Abdullahi Aliyu (Jungle), attracted thousands of workers, civil society groups, market unions, and youths. The demonstrators converged at strategic locations across Sokoto metropolis before marching to the NLC State Secretariat, chanting solidarity songs and displaying placards with inscriptions such as “End Insecurity Now,” “North-West Is Bleeding,” and “Government Must Protect Lives.”
Addressing the crowd, Comrade Aliyu described the protest as a collective cry of anguish by workers and ordinary citizens whose lives and livelihoods, he said, have been shattered by incessant attacks on villages, farmlands, and highways across the region.
He lamented that despite repeated assurances from authorities, residents of the affected states continue to live in constant fear, with farmers unable to access their farmlands, traders abandoning markets, and thousands of families displaced from their ancestral homes.
The NLC accused armed criminal gangs of tightening their grip on rural communities, warning that the insecurity has crippled agricultural activities, worsened food shortages, and deepened poverty in a region traditionally regarded as Nigeria’s food basket.
According to the labour leader, the scale, frequency, and persistence of the attacks underscore the urgent need for decisive and coordinated federal action to halt the worsening security situation.
Labour leaders called on the Federal Government to immediately intensify security operations, deploy more personnel and modern equipment, and strengthen intelligence gathering to dismantle bandits’ networks operating across state boundaries.
They insisted that efforts to tackle insecurity must be holistic, sustained, and free from political considerations.
The NLC further urged the Federal Government to fulfil its constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property, stressing that no meaningful economic recovery or national development can thrive in an atmosphere of fear and bloodshed.
It also demanded improved welfare and support for security personnel on the frontlines, alongside urgent rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced persons.
The protest ended with a resolution demanding immediate federal intervention to free Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Zamfara, and the entire country from what the NLC described as “the shackles of insecurity,” warning that continued inaction would only worsen Nigeria’s humanitarian and economic crisis.
