Residents invade Bayelsa warehouse, loot… foodstuffs

A private warehouse in the Kpansia area of Yenagoa used by the Bayelsa State government to store foodstuffs and other materials was on Sunday invaded by some residents of the state capital who carted away food items and other items.

The items included bags of rice and garri as well as cartons of noodles and bottled water, and they were said to be part of the relief materials donated by some concerned Nigerians during the 2022 flood disaster in the state.

It was learnt that the incident occurred at about 7:30 pm, even as some of the residents stormed the warehouse located along the Isaac Boro Expressway with pick-up vans and private vehicles to move the foodstuffs away, most of which had already gone bad.

While the looting was going on, the state government deployed men from its security outfit called Doo Akpo to disperse the residents and secure the building.

The state government expressed surprise and concern over the invasion of the premises of the privately owned warehouse and described the incident as unwarranted, saying the food items were remnants being gathered for disposal as they were no longer fit for human consumption.

A statement issued by the State Emergency Management Agency, on Monday, said the incident happened at 7:45 pm on Sunday after the Director-General of BYSEMA, Walamam Igrubia, and some personnel of the agency had left the warehouse premises.

The BYSEMA equally condemned the action of the yet-to-be-identified persons who invaded the warehouse premises, and “the attempt to politicise the incident by opposition elements in the state, who seek to score cheap political points from the ugly occurrence.”

It assured people of the state of its preparedness to handle the distribution of palliatives provided by the Federal Government as part of efforts to cushion the effects of its fuel subsidy removal policy as well as the fallout of impending flooding this year.