Streets in the ancient city of Kano were relatively quiet on Monday morning after four days of chaos caused by hoodlums who hijacked the #EndBadGovernance protest.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf imposed a 24-hour curfew last Thursday, the first day of the demonstrations after thugs engaged in widespread looting and destruction of property.
The curfew effectively bars protests within the main city and around major markets but has been relaxed to run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
Despite the relaxation, streets in the pyramid city remain relatively calm with major markets and shops still under lock and key.
Many residents, including market traders, food sellers, roadside vendors, and factory workers remained at home, but a few motorists and rickshaw (tricycle) riders were on the roads on Monday morning.
Basiru Abdulaziz, a tricycle rider was one of them. He stood under a tree around Sokoto Road after driving for hours without seeing a passenger to pick.
He said he borrowed money from his wife to fuel his rickshaw, in the hope of paying her back at the end of the day.
“I borrowed money from my wife to buy fuel before I could come out today. I get most of my passengers around the market but all the markets are currently closed," he said.
"Today, I drove for hours without getting a single passenger. I am just wasting the fuel I bought for N950," he lamented in the Hausa language.
Abdullazeez Zakariya, who owns a boutique at Farm Centre did see a customer despite opening his boutique around 9 am. Now, he is just “hopeful.”
“On a normal day, I'm supposed to have seen, like, four customers but now the market here is just dry.
"Most of the shop owners did not open because there are no customers at all. I opened around 9 am. Since then, no customer.
"We are just hoping that everything will return to the way it was before because things are getting more difficult,” he said.
However, Emmanuel Toyosi, a resident of Janguza Barracks, about 23 kilometers from Farm Centre where I met him, said armed security personnel were deployed to major streets and other strategic places to ensure law and order.
Protest Days One to Five
Demonstrators took to the streets on 1 August, chanting slogans such as: “We are hungry.”
They set tires alight to make a bonfire in front of the state governor's house.
Looters took advantage of the protests to break into a warehouse. People were seen carrying away 25-litre cartons of vegetable cooking oil and mattresses.
Police fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse the thousands of demonstrators. They also sprayed hot water.
The Kano State Police Command has paraded 326 suspects including 22 teenagers and five women, allegedly involved in the looting of private and public properties.
Its spokesperson, Abdullahi Kiyawa, said the police have also recovered many 25-liter jerrycans of groundnut oil.
Other items the police say they recovered include a large quantity of stationery, foodstuff, and other valuable properties.
