The looting in Adamawa

LAST week,  the governor of Adamawa State,  Ahmadu  Fintiri, declared a curfew following the looting of a warehouse belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and private business centres in Yola, the state capital. Chanting “Enough of hunger!”, hoodlums in their legions reportedly took to the streets, protesting against the removal of the subsidy on fuel by the Federal Government which had aggravated the living conditions of the people. They stormed the warehouse, as well as public and  private stores, carting away gallons of vegetable and palm oil, bags of rice, spaghetti, pumping machines and other valuable items, undeterred by the teargas fired by the police to disperse them. Four persons were gunned down.

The Adamawa State Commissioner of Police, Tola Afolabi, who attributed the incident to a rumour that the government was hoarding relief items, said that many hoodlums had been arrested and that investigations had commenced. According to him, the government had earlier increased the security presence around the Central Stores at PZ Roundabout, Jimera, and other locations after receiving information about a possible looting. However, he said, “these measures proved ineffective as the looting incident still occurred.”

In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Humwashi Wonisikou, Governor Fintiri condemned the incident, saying that the imposition of a curfew had become necessary following the dangerous dimension that the activities of the hoodlums had assumed. The curfew restricted movements throughout the state and only persons on essential duties with valid identification were permitted to move around during the period of the curfew. The previous week had witnessed a horde of social misfits and hoodlums on the streets of Yola, stealing and looting ostensibly to keep body and soul together. Also, following the warehouse incident, security operatives were deployed in all NEMA warehouses nationwide. The agency’s Disaster Risks Units (DRUs), comprising personnel of the various security agencies, were activated to provide adequate security for warehouses across the states.

It is true that there is privation in the land. However, a recourse to anarchy and unruly behaviour can never be justified by any means. Yes, there is social discontent, but there are legitimate ways of resolving grievances. The point has to be made that neither the presumed negative effects of government policies nor the growing reality of depreciating standards of living can justify a recourse to criminality. This was why the police reacted with dispatch to the burgeoning threat to life and order inherent in the looting spree and arrested over a hundred suspects. However, while it is incumbent on the law enforcement agencies to treat matters of lawlessness with the needed dispatch, state governments, too, must make the security and welfare of the people a top priority. In a significant sense, it takes hoodlums in government to breed hoodlums in the streets.

If state governments don’t take the security and welfare of the people seriously, they will unwittingly breed hoodlums in the streets.  Looting sprees are a precursor to social upheaval and the earlier they are properly handled, the better. The government must put necessary structures in place to halt the recourse  to unruly behaviour.  We expect the government and the police to follow up in putting appropriate structures in place to anticipate and prevent a recurrence. The government must recognise the need to urgently address the deplorable living conditions of the people.

In the long run, it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep a deprived populace from mischief.