Explosives scare on Zamfara highway leaves motorists stranded

Zamfara map

Hundreds of motorists were on Friday stranded along Gusau-Tsafe-Funtua road, Zamfara following rumour that the bandits have planted several bombs on the road.

The motorists who were in large number have to park their vehicles along the road for fear of the explosives, while several others who were lucky to maneuver their vehicles returned to their respective destinations.

An indigene of the area Adamu Mohammed told the PUNCH that, tension gripped commuters flying the road after suspected bandits reportedly planted many Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) on the busy road.

Mohammed said the incident occurred early Friday morning when it was alleged that bandits had planted the IEDs last night at the same location where a similar explosive was planted last Wednesday.

He said, “Motorists were left stranded for hours for fear of possible explosions, while many abandoned their journeys and went on hiding.”

However, the spokesperson of the state police command DSP Yazid Abubakar told the PUNCH that, it was the police command that directed motorists not to travel on the road until it was cleared by IED detectors.

Abubakar stressed that, the security personnel went on the inspection tour of the road to ascertain its safety.

He added that, “We did not come across any IED, as such, we asked the commuters to go about their journeys”.

Although normalcy has since returned to the area, residents were still entertaining fear of bomb explosions.

Recall that, there was a bomb explosion last Wednesday on the same road, where a trailer vehicle was seriously damaged. Punch