By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Some Residents of FCT on Sunday reportedly looted a government warehouse in Dei -Dei carting away food stuffs and other items over hunger and economic hardship in the nation’s capital.
According to the Agriculture and Rural Development, ARD, Spokesperson, Zakaria Aliyu confirmed that the Agric Secretary had visited the vandalized warehouse at Dei -Dei where the items were carted away and the roofs and windows removed.
He stated that the FCT Minister of State, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, and the FCT Mandate Secretary, Agric Secretariat, Lawan Geidam, will again visit the facility on Monday, where more detailed information will be given regarding the incident.
“We visited the scene of the incident this morning. We visited with the Secretary and some other officials of the Secretariat. So, by tomorrow, the Secretary along with the Minister of State will pay another visit to that place.”
” I am sure that a lot of information that will be useful to you, you will get it. If you can just be patient, tomorrow you will get all the information you need. If you go there, there is nothing there, do you know that they removed the roof, and including the windows , apart from the food items?”, he said.
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency in a statement signed by Manzo Ezekiel, in the NEMA Press Unit, denied reports that its warehouse in Abuja was looted, sympathising with the owners of the affected warehouse.
NEMA added that the Director-General Mustapha Habib Ahmed, had instructed the strengthening of security at its zonal offices and warehouses nationwide, “to forestall any security breach at NEMA facilities.”
The statement reads NEMA, “The attention of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has been drawn to media reports on Sunday alleging that the Agency’s warehouse was looted by some hoodlums in Abuja.”
“This is to clarify that the looted warehouse does not belong to NEMA. However, the Agency sympathizes with owners of the looted facility. “
“To forestall any security breach at NEMA facilities, the Director General Mustapha Habib Ahmed has directed Zonal Directors and Heads of Operations to strengthen security in and around the Agency’s offices and warehouses nationwide.”