In Nigeria, looters target government warehouses stocked with COVID-19 relief

By Percy Dabang and Angela Ukomadu
YOLA/LAGOS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Looters have been targeting
state warehouses across Nigeria stocked with COVID-19 relief
supplies which they say should already have gone to the poor and
hungry.
Authorities denied accusations of food hoarding or plans to
sell the supplies. The National Governors Forum (NGF), which
brings together the heads of Nigeria's 36 states, said some of
the looted items were a "strategic reserve ahead of a projected
second wave of COVID-19."
But stores of so-called "palliatives", some rotting, months
after COVID-19 lockdowns ended, provoked outrage in a nation
reeling from spiralling food prices, high unemployment and
anti-police brutality protests that turned violent in October,
eroding trust in government.
James, 29, in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state in
northeastern Nigeria, said he was tired of unfulfilled
government promises to help.
"I was really shocked when I got to the warehouse and I saw
the quantity of stuff," he said. "Most of the stuff were out of
date and I was like...why are we not getting it?"
He took seven cartons of noodles, two bags of sugar and a
bag of rice.
Videos showing dozens of similar raids, from northern Kaduna
state to western Kwara and Lagos in the south, have filled
social media since late October.
At some warehouses, guard were overrun by looters, while
state or local officials sent armed men to others to chase the
looters away.
Many of the raids happened in the chaotic days following the
shooting of protesters in Lagos on Oct. 20, when some areas in
Nigeria, mostly in southern states such as Lagos and Cross River
became engulfed by lawlessness and there was widespread looting.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouk's office
said distributing palliatives was the responsibility of state
governors, not the federal government. The NGF did not return a
request for comment.
With Nigerians spending 60% of income on food, according to
analysts SBM Intelligence, and trust in government low, some
support the looters.
"That is not stealing," Opeyemi Elegbede, a payment recovery
officer for food vendors in Lagos, told Reuters. "They went for
their rights."
Senior SBM analyst Glory Etim said few believe official
explanations.
"If these things were not distributed at that time, it means
there were other motives behind it," she said. "It's this motive
that they've been trying to explain, and it doesn't really make
sense."
Nigeria has had 63,790 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,154
deaths.