Abuja-Kaduna highway now safe, El-Rufai says

Kidnapping on Abuja-Kaduna highway has substantially reduced and the highway is now safe for roadusers, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, said on Thursday.

The Governor made the remark at an inter-agency security meeting held in Kaduna.

Early this year, Kaduna state was in the news for the wrong reasons due to rising cases of kidnapping, communal clashes, and rural banditry.

At some point, the Kaduna-Abuja highway and Birnin-Gwari road became a no-go area for motorists largely due to the incessant abduction of travellers and residents.

But El-Rufai said the kidnappers terrorising the highway have been substantially degraded and defeated by security agencies, and therefore declared the road safe for motorists.

At the security meeting, which involved officials from the Police, Army, Nigerian Security and  Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and others, El-Rufai expressed happiness that no one has been kidnapped on the highway in the last two and a half months.

He attributed the success to the enhanced level of collaboration and coordination among security agencies.

However, he urged them to sustain the inter-agency collaboration while also assuring that the State Government is committed to complementing their efforts through logistics support, mobility, hardware and other means