Some residents of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Friday night broke into a national silo located along Federal Polythechnic, Ado-Ekiti and carted away fertilizers and poisonous seeds which they mistook for COVID-19 palliatives.
The residents also ransacked the State Emergency Management Agency warehouses, where materials stored as reliefs for flood victims were kept.
They defied heavy rainfall and attacked the storage facilities and made away with items suspected to be poisonous and not consumable.
They were reported to have mistaken the fertilizers for garri and the preserved maize as consumable grains.
It was gathered that large number of residents had boarded vehicles and motorcycles from far distances like Ijigbo, Ajilosun and Odo Ado Area of the metropolis to the area to perpetrate the looting.
These incidents occurred despite Ekiti State Government’s release on Friday evening that there were no more COVID-19 palliatives in the state.
Sensing danger, soldiers were said to have been drafted to the silos to protect the commodities, but people were said to have started looting before they got to the scene.
This scenario was said to have caused traffic logjam along Ado-Ijan -Ikare road, as soldiers made spirited efforts to disperse the huge crowd of intending looters that massed at the scene.
Several persons were said to have sustained bodily injuries as soldiers reportedly deployed minimal force to ward off the crowd.
The state government which confirmed the raid in a ‘Public Notice’ made available on Friday night, appealed to the people not to consume the items taken from the places as they were not meant for consumption and capable of killing.
The State Commissioner for Information, Akinbowale Omole, had earlier in the evening, raised the alarm over plan by some hoodlums to attack some warehouses in the state under the guise of looking for COVID-19 palliatives in Ekiti State and clarified that the government had distributed all palliatives to members of the public during the lockdown period.
The Public Notice reads, “Reports reaching us confirm that the FG’s silos, the ADP warehouse and the SEMA store, all in Ado- Ekiti, have been attacked by hoodlums under the guise of seeking CACOVID palliatives.
“Ekiti State has NO CACOVID palliative warehouse as all the palliatives have been distributed. The items being carted away are Single Super Phosphate fertilizer and NPK which they have erroneously identified as Garri. The SEMA store has emergency supplies for disaster response e.g. flood, fire or any other emergencies.
“Some are even making away with corns preserved for planting, with chemical pre-fermentation. All these items are poisonous and not fit for consumption.
“We appeal to our people not to consume these items because they can kill. Ekiti State has NO COVID-19 Palliatives warehouse as all palliatives have been distributed to members of the public during the lockdown period.”
