Hoodlums break into govt stores in Yola, Jos cart away food items

Hoodlums have broken into government food storage facilities to loot food items in Yola, Adamawa State and Jos in Plateau State of Nigeria.

On Sunday, many looters broke into a food storage facility located at Kwanarwaya, near Sangere, along Numan road and stole food items.

In a viral video, many looters could be seen and heard calling on others to rush to the scene in order to get their share.

Later, another video surfaced in which hundreds of people were seen stealing food items from the store, including rice, noodles and other assorted food items.

The police spokesperson in the state, Sulaiman Nguroje, who confirmed the incident, said he and a police team are on their way to the scene of the incident.

“We have heard that hundreds of people have gathered and are looting foodstuff at a storage facility in Kwanarwaya.

”We have mobilised policemen and are on our way to the scene in order to restore peace and order in the area.

“I will get back to you after we are through with the operation,” Mr Nguroje said.

Nigeria is currently witnessing an upsurge of attacks on government food storage facilities and carting away of foodstuff. States were similar attacks on storage facilities have occured include Lagos, Osun, Kwara and Plateau.

The development started in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest that was hijacked by hoodlums after a government crackdown.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had on Saturday issued a stern warning against looters of public property, saying that the police will henceforth not condone such acts of breach, promising a clampdown on perpetrators.

However, hoodlums have again invaded a warehouse in Jos. The latest warehouse was filled with fertiliser and the hoodlums carted away several bags of fertiliser and farm implements believed to be from the office of the Plateau Agricultural and Development (PADP).

The invasion occurred early Sunday morning, despite the reinstatement of a 24-hour curfew in Jos on Saturday.

The warehouse is located at Dogon Dutse area in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The thieves broke into the warehouse claiming they were searching for COVID-19 palliative items yet to be distributed.

It was learnt that the items are those of the Fadama Project 4 which were provided by the state government in collaboration with international agencies.

Video and pictures obtained on social media show the hoodlums carrying bags of fertiliser and other farm inputs along the Dogon Dutse axis.

The Sunday incident occurred hours after Saturday’s vandalisation of a warehouse in Bukuru town, where a substantive amount of COVID-19 palliative, mainly food items like rice and noodles, was looted by the hoodlums.

The Plateau State Government had after the Saturday incident reinstated a 24-hour curfew earlier imposed in Jos-North and Jos-South local governments. The curfew was earlier introduced following the violence that occurred after the #EndSARS protest against police brutality in the state.

The state government which had condemned the Saturday looting was yet to react to Sunday incident at the time of this report.