Videos seen by SaharaReporters captured moments when the residents, most especially youths, also stoned a helicopter in the convoy, burnt objects on the road and also damaged some police vehicles with stones during the confusion.
Angry Kano State residents and youths on Monday pelted the convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari with stones causing chaos and unrest in parts of the state.
Videos seen by SaharaReporters captured moments when the residents, most especially youths, also stoned a helicopter in the convoy, burnt objects on the road and also damaged some police vehicles with stones during the confusion.
Buhari, who is in the state on a two-day official visit, had earlier on Monday commissioned the bridge at the Hotoro roundabout in the Kano metropolis.
The three-step interchange which was financed through an N8 billion bank loan stretches between Kano bypass road and Kano-Maiduguri road and is named after President Muhammadu Buhari.
The project will ease the flow of traffic from the busy road connecting Kano with states in the northeast of the country.
WATCH: Residents Destroy APC Billboards To Protest Buhari’s Visit To Kano Amidst Economic Hardship pic.twitter.com/qM33jvtFni
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 30, 2023
It was not clear yet how the security agencies were able to manage the angry protests on Monday.
SaharaReporters had on Saturday reported that the Kano State government wrote a letter to Buhari, asking him to postpone his visit to the state due to security reasons caused by the currency swap crisis.
The president was scheduled to visit the state between January 30 and 31, to commission some projects built by the Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s administration.
However, during an interactive session which featured scholars, legislators, political leaders and business community in the state, held in Government House on Friday, the decision to write the president to postpone the visit was taken.
According to a press statement by Malam Abba Anwar, the Chief press Secretary to Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the decision which was endorsed by critical stakeholders in the state was said to have been taken to avoid any unforeseen circumstance.
During the meeting with sections of citizens in the state, they accepted that, the decision was a unanimous one. As they all spoke in support of the letter sent to Presidency.
According to the report, two serving Senators from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya and Barau Jibrin, 20 members of the state House of Representatives and 30 legislators from the State House of Assembly were amongst the groups that put their weight behind the governor.
The statement reads in parts: “Deeply concerned with the hardship caused by limited time given for halting use of old Naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and for security reasons, the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, reveals that the state resolved and wrote to Presidency that, the visit of the President to commission some projects be postponed.
“As we are waiting for this important visit, we found ourselves in this situation, which puts citizens into untold hardship. For security purpose we wrote to Presidency that President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kano be postponed.
"We got an acknowledgement copy of the letter. People are really suffering because of this policy.
“There are no banks in most of our rural communities. How these people get new Naira notes is of great concern. Just look at what is happening in our urban areas, people go and spend hours upon hours in banks. And without any assurances of getting the new notes.”
Only last week, Buhari was stoned in his home state – Katsina.
Recall that on Wednesday, a few irate Katsina residents demonstrated against what they perceived to be unimaginable hardships inflicted on Nigerians by the Buhari administration.
According to reports, the protesters set bonfires on fire and hurled rocks and other objects at the presidential motorcade.