By Umar Dankano
Residents of Adamawa state capital, Jimeta-Yola, were thrown in to yet another repeat of 2020 EndSARs protests, a civil disturbance that orchestrated mass destruction, maiming and killings of innocent Nigerians over issues relating to palliatives, allegedly hidden from the suffering masses by the authorities.
It started penultimate Sunday, July 3oth, when majority of Christian-faithfuls were at their churches for the usual weekly worship, then the dreaded hoodlums in their numbers came out in full force on foot and in tricycle machines fondly called keke Napep, dangling their dangerous weapons with a sole mission of locating any government or private owned warehouse for attack and subsequent looting of all food and non food items found in those warehouses.
At about pass six-o’clock (6am) in the morning,the hoodlums located the state government warehouses located at famous Kwanar Waya along Numan road and forcefully broke into the facility and packed both food and non food items available before proceeding to the National Emergency Management Agency,NEMA situated at Numan road close to the Yola International Airport Yola and broke into the central stores where they looted goods worth millions of Naira.
On sensing danger and destruction caused by the mayhem, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri declared a 24-hour curfew throughout the state that Sunday afternoon directing the security agencies to ensure full compliance to curtail further destructive activities by the rampaging hoodlums.
In a press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Fintiri, Mr.Humwashi Wonosikou, the government explained that the curfew followed the dangerous dimension the activities of hoodlums had assumed across the state capital as they attack people with matchets and break into business premises, carting away property.
After an on the spot assessment tour of the affected warehouses led by the officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Adamawa state Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA) and Head of Security Agencies in the state, Governor Fintiri in a statewide broadcast titled “We have a state and people to protect” condemned the actions of the misguided young men and women involved in the unfortunate acts, announcing that security agents will certainly go after those involved for prosecution to serve as detterant to others.
Governor Fintiri spoke with strong words directing all alleged looters and their parents or guardians to return all the stolen properties or face the wrath of the law warning that any defaulter will have themselves to blame as house-to-house search will commence and warning that any one caught will face prosecution while the Certificate of Occupation (C of O) of such house used for criminal activities will be withdrawn and the property risks demolition.
“To those hoodlums bent at disrupting the peace of the state,you are given until 12pm Tuesday 1st August 2023 to return all items looted from the warehouses to the nearest police stations,after which I will sign an Executive order for a house-to-house search to commence at the expiration of the deadline.
“Part of the provision of the order is sanction that will attract withdrawal of C o O and if necessary demolition of every house that habours any of the stolen property.
“Law abiding citizens should cooperate with the security agencies to ensure this is enforced to the later.I am calling on parents to handover their deviant wards and the stolen goods to the security agencies or equally face the wraths of the law”.Fintiri fumed.
However, the Adamawa state Police Command in conjunction with other security outfits have arrested 110 suspects regarding the ugly development in the state urging parents and guardians to watch the company their wards are keeping.
Spokesman of the Command, SP Suleiman Nguroje confirmed the arrest while fielding questions from journalists, detailing that those apprehended including 13 female and 97 males have since been charged to court.
SP Nguroje added that many stolen properties were retrieved from some of the offenders but declined to give number of casualties recorded in the saga, though some unconfirmed reports had it that fifteen(15) people lost their lives as a result of stampede and alleged shooting from security operatives and local vigilante members.
Assessing the level of destruction at their Central warehouse,Mallam Ladan Ayuba Head of Operations in charge of Adamawa and Taraba states NEMA, Yola office said that all the food and non food items in their stores were massively looted by these miscreants.
Ayuba lamented that even their offices were not left untouched as all the furniture with ceiling fans were vandalised noting that office files were also not-spared during the attacks.
“I can’t quantify the magnitude of loss now because we are taking stock of what these hoodlums destroyed in our offices including furniture, ceiling fans and even our office files were not spared.Their actions were pure act of wickedness not hunger at all”.Ayuba said.
Earlier in Governor Fintiri’s broadcast, he accused some politicians in the state especially the opposition of sponsoring the hoodlums to carry out the heinous crimes for political reasons but reacting to the allegation, a former Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Adamawa All Progressives Congress (APC), Mohammed Mayas condemned the action of the youths and faulted Governor Fintiri’s government for refusing to share the palliatives on time and allowing it degenerate into civil disturbances for the state.
Mayas opined that the act of vandalising and looting warehouses for items by the miscreants is a crime which must be investigated and prosecute the culprits because there was no justification for a hungry man or woman to steal mattresses, electric-generators and water pumping machines in the name of government palliatives.
He equally observed that the state government allegedly contributed to the happenings for being negligent by hoarding the palliatives sent by Federal government and donors hammering that the government should have learned its lesson from the EndSARs Protest of 2020 which recorded major security breaches across the country.
Mayas advised parents, guardians and leaders to play their roles in moulding the characters of their wards while calling on the government to improve in their strategies of sharing palliatives on time to the masses so that cases of violence can be contained.
