Abuja residents break down govt warehouse, cart off food items
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Residents of Gwagwa area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja on Sunday broke into a government storage facility and looted food items, the same day the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) denied ownership of another wharehouse earlier looted in the FCT where food items were also stolen.
FCT Public Relations Officer Agric Secretariat Zakari Aliyu confirmed the warehouse belongs to the FCT.
“It’s an FCT warehouse at Gwagwa. We have visited with our Mandate Secretary. He will repeat the visit with the HMS tomorrow,” Aliyu said.
Youths in their numbers broke into the warehouse located around Tasha at about 7am and carted away bags of maize and other grains.
Ibrahim Alfa, a resident, said the looting continued unhindered for several hours, which caused traffic gridlock on the Gwagwa-Karmo Road that leads to the Dei-Dei and Jabi axes.
Another resident, John, recounted the looters did not spare even protectors used to barricade the site as they picked anything deemed useful from the facility.
The same warehouse was emptied during the COVID-19 lockdown and bags of grain as well as pumping machines meant for intervention schemes were stolen.
After raiding the store on Sunday, the rampaging youths headed towards Idu Industrial Estate that hosts warehouses owned by the government and individuals.
FCT Police Public Relations Officer Josephine Adeh, a Superintendent of Police, said officers were trying to control the situation.
“The FCT police command is fully informed about the impulsive attack on Agric Department Strategic Food Store located at Tasha, Abuja, on 2/03/2024 by some irate crowd, which resulted in the vandalism and looting of the warehouse,” she explained in a statement.
“The command wishes to state that normalcy has since been restored to the environment and the situation is very much under control, as 15 suspects were arrested, including two local security guards employed by the warehouse management.
“Exhibits such as 26 bags of maize, five motorcycles and some vandalised aluminum roofings were recovered from the suspects.”
In the other report, NEMA Head of Press Unit Manzo Ezekiel clarified “the [earlier] looted warehouse does not belong to NEMA. However, the agency sympathises with owners of the looted facility.
“To forestall any security breach at NEMA facilities, the Director General Mustapha Habib Ahmed has directed Zonal Directors and Heads of Operations to strengthen security in and around the agency’s offices and warehouses nationwide.”
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