A private warehouse in Yenagoa’s Kpansia district utilized by the Bayelsa State government to store groceries and other supplies was raided on Sunday by some state capital residents who carted away food and other commodities.
Bags of rice and garri, as well as cartons of noodles and bottled water, were stated to be among the relief commodities contributed by concerned Nigerians following the state’s flood crisis in 2022.
The event started at 7:30 p.m., while several neighbors stormed the warehouse located along the Isaac Boro Expressway with pick-up vans and private automobiles to move the supplies, the majority of which had already gone bad.
During the looting, the state administration sent men from its security unit, Doo Akpo, to disperse the people and protect the facility.
The state government voiced surprise and alarm about the invasion of the privately held warehouse’s premises and called the act unjustified, claiming that the food items were remnants being gathered for disposal because they were no longer fit for human consumption.
According to a statement released by the State Emergency Management Agency on Monday, the event occurred at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, after the Director-General of BYSEMA, Walamam Igrubia, and several agency officials had left the warehouse premises.
The statement read in part, “During the 2022 flood in the state, the Agency used the warehouse to store food items.
“As part of preparations for an impending flood this year, the DG visited the premises, and in his presence, remnants of food items, notably rice and garri that were no longer fit for consumption, were cleared from the warehouse and placed outside for disposal the next day.
“The remnants, which were swept from the floor and packed in disused bags, were less than 10 bags of rice and garri and with some broken cans of oil. For emphasis, BYSEMA states that these items were not fresh food palliatives and were not hoarded by the Agency or the state government.
“Importantly, these items are unfit for human consumption and a responsible, caring government like ours will not give Bayelsans such items as palliatives. In essence, there were really no food items to loot. So, those who carted away the unfit items are please advised in their own interest not to consume them.”
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.”
