Abuja, March 4, 2024 – Mariya Mahmoud, the Minister of State in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has declared the looting of a warehouse in the Gwagwa-Tasha as criminal act.
She said the looting of the warehouse by some hoodlums on Sunday was beyond hunger.
The minister said this on Monday after an assessment visit to Gwagwa-Tasha to ascertain the level of damage to the warehouse.
She said what she saw as an unfortunate incident and expressed her disappointment at the attitude of the youths within the area.
“We are here due to the unfortunate incident that happened early hours of yesterday, where hoodlums attacked this very warehouse and packed everything that is here, including the fence.
“Not only the food items that are here, including the roofing, windows, and even the gates of this place and offices were all attacked.
“You can see the level of damage. There is nothing that is left here, including the types of machinery that are used for the processing of these things.
“As you have heard, people around, the youth of the environment or the community are suspected to have instigated this incident. So, this is a very sad event. And we are not happy about it”.
She said the incident happed at a time the administration was restocking its warehouse to meet up with the directive of Mr. President to distribute palliatives to all the six area councils in FCT.
“We did distribution about twice. And then about to do the third one, where these trucks were here to offload these food items, and then they were attacked, even injured some people on duty.
“This is really a bad situation. And it is not something that the Administration will take lightly. All those that are involved must be brought to book. We have to do something.
“And also, this is a sign that we need to reinforce the security situation around all our warehouses because you just have to keep food.
“But the way this thing happened actually is beyond hunger. This is a criminal act. Somebody who is hungry cannot move out to remove all the roofings that are here. All the doors, all the windows, and also the gates.
“This is not showing that we are good ambassadors of the nation. So definitely we are going to take action about this event that has happened.”. (GBN)
