From Demilade Adeniyi, with Agency Report
Hundreds of people suspected to be hoodlums on Friday besieged the premises of Kwara Ministry of Agriculture and looted relief materials being distributed to victims of recent rainstorm in llorin metropolis.
This is just as hoodlums under the guise of the ongoing #EndSARS protest looted Cross River COVID-19 palliative warehouse at Bishop Moinagh Street, State Housing Authority in Calabar.
These bring to four the number of states where hoodlums have taken the laws into their hands and looted the warehouses where COVID-19 relief materials were kept.
Other locations were such had taken place are Lagos and Osun States.
In Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the hoodlums, including females and teenagers, carried various dangerous weapons and chanted solidarity songs while looting the items.
The looting disrupted the ongoing distribution of the relief items under the supervision of some officials of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The NEMA officials, military personnel and some officials of the Kwara Emergency Management Agency took to their heels immediately they sighted the hoodlums.
The relief materials looted by the hoodlums were bundles of roofing sheet, bags of rice, bags of cement, blankets, mattresses, among others.
Mrs Lydia Wagami, a NEMA official said she could not quantify the worth of the items carted away by the hoodlums.
She expressed gratitude to God that everybody in charge of the distribution of the items escaped unhurt.
The hoodlums had earlier looted bags of rice from the Cargo shed at the llorin International Airport and the Nigeria Customs office along Ejiba road in llorin.
The activities of the hoodlums caused panic among residents of llorin as commercial vehicles were completely off the roads while the looting lasted.
In Cross River State, the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the hoodlums were seen in their numbers carting away bags of rice, noodles, salt and gallons of vegetable oil.
They had earlier in the day blocked the Muritala Mohammed Highway, restricting vehicular movement.
As at the time of this report, men of the Nigerian Police Force, who just arrived the scene, were seen trying to restore order.
However, dispersing the crowd that had built was a herculean task as more and more people were seen trooping to the warehouse despite sounds of gunshot.
NAN also reports that some of the people seen carting away items from the warehouse were heard saying “the food is ours but they are keeping it for themselves”.
Gov. Ben Ayade has imposed a 24 hours curfew in the state starting from 6 p.m. on Friday.
Residents are advised to observe the curfew as security agents have been mandated to arrest anyone who flouts the order.