A truckload of food items including sugar and oil meant for Ramadan “Iftar” distributions in northern Nigeria, was hijacked in Gombe State according to reports. The “Iftar” period is known as the Muslims’ period of breaking the fast.
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According to the Gombe state police command public relations officer, DSP Buhari Abdullahi, the looting happened because residents had earlier seen the food items being unloaded from the truck and became agitated as to where the rest of the items were going.
During a telephone interview with DSP Buhari Abdullahi, he revealed that hijacked items were donated for “Iftar” by President Tinubu stating that the truck drivers had already unloaded nearly all the items at the APC secretariat.
He said “The truck was carrying Seyi Tinubu’s foodstuffs moving around northern Nigeria for Iftar, breakfast. There were packs of oil and sugar packages in several cartons there. Unfortunately, there wasn’t involvement of security until when the issue escalated, and we observed that something was happening.”
He added that the police responded promptly and invited the truck driver for questioning upon confirmation that the items were meant for “Iftar” distribution in the state.
“We invited the truck driver, and he explained the nature of the items he was conveying. He confirmed that it was meant for Gombe State, and he had offloaded about 90 per cent of the items at the All Progressives Congress secretariat, the remaining items, he claimed he was taking it somewhere before the hijack.
“Unfortunately, the lack of security personnel on the ground until the situation escalated allowed the hijacking to occur” he stated.
DSP Abdullahi pointed out that hiring the services of security personnels for crowd control during such distribution activities are vital to avoid situations like this.
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“The ideal thing is when you want to distribute anything, you are supposed to engage the services of security personnel for crowd management, but nobody informed the police until the truck was hijacked and people began to carry those items but you know we can’t allow it happen we responded.
“It was because people had seen what was there at their initial point of offloading, so people started panicking, and they wanted to know where the remaining was going. It was in the middle of the road that they hijacked it,” he added.
In response to the incident, Bulus Adamu, a strong advocate of good governance highlighted that the looting of the “Iftar” donations was an evidence of the high level of hunger and desperation urging the government and charity other philanthropists to come up with poverty alleviation solutions and initiatives to help the masses.
Bulus said “They are hungry and need food. The government should do more to help our youths. If I were a philanthropist, I would seek out workable solutions instead of exposing people to risks.
“Solutions like providing jobs, and increase their pay” he added.
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