Residents of Gwagwalada, looting COVID-19 paliatives from the warehouse in Abuja. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA
“There was nothing like palliative for the poor; it was meant for the rich. They are the people that brought the disease to Nigeria, now they want us to suffer. The so-called food they claimed they shared did not get to the poor and downtrodden. Amid the looting spree, many Nigerians hauled insults on the state governors for depriving the masses what was meant for them. Even President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Zahra Buhari-Indimi, was part of the rage.
It added: “The erroneous impression in the public domain that these palliatives were hoarded is not just inaccurate, entirely erroneous and untrue but also mischievous to say the least. For the avoidance of doubt, some of the palliatives had the CACOVID stamp embossed on them, meaning that their source is unambiguous.
The Coalition acknowledged that although the palliative drive commenced in April, the first set of deliveries to the state governments could not start until June. A lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Kingsley Chukwuma, who admitted that it was difficult to conclude whether the actions of the hoodlums were right or wrong, noted that “the masses are poor, hungry and angry and it is common knowledge that an angry man is a senseless man.”
Okwudili Madu, on his part, said: “It is important to note that if the appropriate bodies had done justice to the distribution of the palliatives, they would not have been looted.”A poet, Abdulhameed Safiu, also observed that although looting the palliatives from the warehouses was wrong, the rate of unemployment, hunger and the rapid increase in the prices of food items makes the action understandable.
“First, the palliatives were not private property; they were COVID-19 relief materials for the same citizens who unlocked the warehouses and took what rightfully belonged to them. Second, the people who took the palliatives were not enemies; they were citizens, and from my point of view, the bravest in the history of this country. They didn’t go to the warehouses secretly, they went there and took their palliatives in the open.
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