Warehouse looting: Police, NEMA on red alert in Lagos

The Lagos State Police Command and the National Emergency Management Agency have placed their operatives on red alert against any attack on warehouses and shopping malls.

The command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday.

Hundeyin said that the command had tightened security around the different shopping malls and government warehouses with food items in the state to prevent possible attacks by hoodlums.

Several incidents of attacks and looting of warehouses and food trucks have been reported in many cities against the backdrop of the hardship and the cost of living crisis in the country,

Last week, some youths stole food items from trucks stuck in traffic along Kaduna Road in the Suleja area of Niger State.

The attackers reportedly overwhelmed the truck drivers and looted scores of bags of rice before they were dispersed by soldiers.

On Sunday, the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration confirmed the looting of its warehouse in Dei-Dei by residents in the FCT, over the economic hardship in the country.

Confirming the incident to our correspondent, the spokesperson for the ARD Secretariat, Zakari Aliyu, said the FCT Mandate Secretary, Agric Secretariat, Lawan Geidam, had earlier visited the warehouse, where the residents had looted everything in the store and vandalised the place, removing the roofs and windows.

The FCT Police Command said it had arrested 15 suspects in connection with the vandalism of the warehouse belonging to the Abuja FCDA.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

However, Hundeyin told NAN that the command was living up to its responsibility of providing security to all and sundry in Lagos.

He noted that the command was not anticipating any such attack, stressing that the deployment was just to check acts of violence in the state.

“The Command is just being alive to its responsibilities. In fact, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adegoke Fayoade, has deployed personnel to vulnerable places.

“Area Commanders, Heads of Tactical Teams and DPOs have also been briefed in that regard.

“Operatives of the state anti-crime outfit, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), have also been briefed on the need to keep a close watch on government warehouses and malls, where food items and beverages are sold,” he said.

Similarly, NEMA in the South-West Region, said its management had beefed up security around their warehouses.

NEMA’s Coordinator in the South-West Zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, disclosed this to NAN on Thursday in Lagos.

Farinloye said the move is to forestall any attack on government warehouses by miscreants, who may want to hide under the cover of the current challenge in the country, to break into facilities where food items are stored.

“Although, there’s no single food item in the warehouses but all critical stakeholders are on standby for any attempt by anyone to break into them,” he noted.

He added that they had been directed to beef up security for the safety of all assets of government in the region.

“We are taking worse scenario precautionary safety measures to safeguard both human and other assets of the Federal Government from unforeseen circumstances,” he said.