Lockdown Food Riots: Famished by COVID Cult Restrictions Nigerians Loot Government Warehouses

Amid the ongoing protests in Nigeria over police brutality, mobs of citizens have overrun several government-owned warehouses and looted food meant to be distributed during this year’s coronavirus lockdowns. In the latest incident, a mob looted packages of rice, sugar, salt and noodles Monday from a facility in the Nigerian capital. On Saturday, security officials dispersed mobs at another storage facility under attack in Abuja.

Some protesters were demonstrating in front of a facility in Garki, Abuja, as military and police vans barricaded the entrance to the facility.

Earlier, mobs of people trying to attack the facility and make away with some food items were dispersed after security officials fired their guns into the air.

But many, like David Ojo, remained adamant and said they wouldn’t leave until they got some food.

“We need our palliatives. It is our right. My neighbor almost died of hunger because of COVID-19,” said Ojo. “He used to work as security guard at a government institution, but he was sacked. What do you want him to do? I gave him beans and rice, he almost died of hunger.”

Storage facilities holding tons of relief materials have been burglarized and looted in nine states across Nigeria over the last few days.

Noah’s Ark 2020 💔😭 pic.twitter.com/1Y3SuJtV4z

— Moses Samuel Adeleke (MSA) (@FRIISTII) October 24, 2020

A private sector coalition against the coronavirus, known as CA-COVID, had collected tens of millions of dollars’ worth of aid for coronavirus victims and given it to the government.

But many state authorities have halted distribution of the aid since the easing of lockdowns.

Some Nigerians accuse authorities of hoarding items while millions of people experience hunger.

Abuja residents like Sunday Chukwu say they didn’t receive any government assistance during lockdowns.

“They didn’t share anything here,” said Chukwu. “Maybe they shared for themselves. But they didn’t share for everybody and these ones now they are hiding it so that people may leave it, they’ll now gather them, they’ll be selling it to the people.”

The coronavirus pandemic [lockdown] exacerbated hunger for many of the country’s extremely poor, who number some 83 million, about 40 percent of the population, according to the country’s statistics bureau.

COVID I9 palliatives warehouse in Jos pic.twitter.com/PVArzhigC4

— m (@fhateemah_) October 24, 2020

Vivian Bellonwu, the head of Social Action Nigeria, says the amount of food kept in storage is an indication of “systemic failure.”

“To think that certain persons could lock down this quantum of food and materials as we are seeing them in their premises, in their custody and watching while people wallow in poverty and difficulty, is really unthinkable,” said Bellonwu. “I think that it is quite mean, I think it’s highly insensitive and I think that this is a betrayal of trust of the people.”

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Monday said the looted items in warehouses in some states were being held for vulnerable people, not hoarded.

As security officials monitor facilities across Nigeria more closely, various state authorities are making plans to commence distribution.

Source: Voice of America

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JOS (NIGERIA) – Several thousand people ransacked and looted a government food warehouse in central Nigeria on Saturday in the latest in two weeks of unrest sweeping over Africa’s most populous country.

After pillaging hit Lagos and Ede in the country’s southwest, crowds of people raided a huge warehouse in Jos that was storing supplies destined for distribution during lockdowns imposed to control the virus pandemic.

Videos on social media showed thousands of people in Jos carrying away sacks of cereals and rice and bags of pasta. Looters stripped away parts of the roof of the building.

“So during the lockdown they were just hiding the food. I wonder about the kind of government we have,” said Mafeg Pam, who lives in Jos. “Many people have died from hunger.”

Another Jos resident, Mohammed Ibrahim, said: “They hid this food since the lockdown. By now they should have shared it.”

Source: AFP

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The warehouse in Jos is just one among a string of similar buildings to be hit, with almost a third of the country’s 36 states reporting raids on food aid.

Ministers say the food was intended to help those hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns, and that it was in the process of being distributed.

But amid widespread anti-government protests and in the wake of peaceful activists being shot dead as security services watched on, people were not buying it.

One person at the Jos food warehouse told France24: ‘How can we have such a wicked government, where their citizens are dying of starvation and they hide these relief materials from them?

‘There is hunger and starvation because there is high inflation of food prices in the market and not everyone can afford to buy due to lack of employment and poor wages and salaries.’

Another who was present during the Abuja raid on Monday added: ‘We are hungry, you understand.

‘There is plenty of food in this country but people are suffering. The government is cheating us by parking away this food. We are not stealing, it’s our food and our right.’

According to the Nigerian government, more than half of the country’s population was forced to take out loans to pay for food during lockdown earlier this year.

Meanwhile 68 per cent of households experienced moderate or severe food insecurity during August, even after the lockdown had eased.

Source: The Daily Mail

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66roM-EDPbE

News began to spread on social media that other warehouses may contain food and emergency supplies after Covid-19 palliatives – mainly foodstuffs such as guinea corn, maize, rice and noodles – were looted in Lagos on October 22. Numerous posts encouraged Jos residents to search for stockpiles of Covid-19 palliatives nearby, causing crowds to descend on several Jos warehouses – and the home of a politician.

Michael (name changed on request of anonymity), a 23-year-old student from Jos, said he believed the raid was a symptom of increasing precarity in Nigeria.

People decided to go there because they are suffering and starving. When I arrived everyone was trying to get hold of the food items for themselves. I felt bad because how can we have such a wicked government, where their citizens are dying of starvation and they hide these relief materials from them? There is hunger and starvation because there is high inflation of food prices in the market and not everyone can afford to buy due to lack of employment and poor wages and salaries. People were just struggling to go in and out to get the foodstuff.

Source: France 24