Starving Nigerians on Sunday morning broke into a government food storage facility in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to loot stored food items.
The warehouse, which belongs to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, came under siege at about 7:00 a.m. Nigerian time.
The people, numbering hundreds, exploited the near-total absence of the police and other security personnel to raid the building. A video shared on social media showed people leaving the building with bags of grains even as others were rushing to the warehouse to grab theirs. The operation went on unhindered till about 9:00 a.m.
These are hard times for many Nigerians who are struggling to scrape together some money to survive day after day. The rising prices of essentials of living, especially food, caused by the government’s stoppage of gas subsidy payment last year, erode the value of people’s income, deepening hardship for low-income earners.
The police have confirmed the arrest of 15 persons including two security guards in connection with the theft. Twenty-six bags of maize, five motorcycles, and some vandalized aluminum roofing were recovered from the suspects.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
