By Sarah NEGEDU
The Sunday looting of the Federal Capital Territory Administration owned warehouse by restive youths may slow down the distribution of palliatives in the territory, the FCTA has warned.
This is as the administration says it will have to reconstruct the warehouse for storage before any distribution can go on in the nation’s capital.
FCT Minister of State, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, who disclosed this on Monday after an assessment visit to Gwagwa-Tasha to ascertain the level of damage on the warehouse, said the FCTA will have to beef up security across its warehouses.
Mahmoud noted that the unfortunate incident occurred when the administration was restocking its warehouses, so as to meet up with the predidential directive to distribute palliatives to all the six area councils in FCT.
She vowed that the administration would prosecute those behind the ugly incident stating that, “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.”
The visibly shocked minister stressed that the looting of a warehouse by hoodlums was beyond hunger, but a criminal act.
“But the way this thing happened actually is beyond hunger. This is a criminal act. Somebody that 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”.
The Minister, who expressed disappointment over the attitude of the youths within area, however assured that the administration would established a police post in all government warehouses across the territory going forward.
In her words; “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 roofings, 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 machineries 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”.
