#EndSARS: Stop branding Nigerians who took COVID-19 palliatives looters, check what they actually did

Nigerian youths who invaded government warehouses across the country and made away with COVID-19 palliatives procured for distribution to vulnerable persons in the states are not looters but what they took from the warehouses rightly belongs to them, a human rights activist has said.

Comrade Kehinde Taiga, a human rights activist in Delta said the foods which were taken away from the warehouses belong to Nigerians. He said the foods were meant to be distributed to the poor and vulnerable but the various state governments kept them in warehouses and Nigerians went there and took them. If they were not hungry, they would not have taken the food.

For him, branding these people as looters is wrong.  It was hunger that moved them to the warehouses. He said the group of persons who broke into police stations, razed them down, made away with police uniforms and ammunition, broke into malls, Shoprites and people’s private houses and stole are looters. These people are thieves.

He said such persons should be arrested and prosecuted. He added that nobody has right to burn police stations and kill police officers. This, according to him, is wrong and all the people involved should be arrested and jailed.

His reaction followed the widespread crackdown on Nigerians who invaded warehouses and made away with food which were stored by the various state governors in the country. But as the #EndSARS protest went violent, youths broke into the warehouses and carted away the foods.

The foods taken away by the people include bags of rice, noodles, oil, and others. These foods were procured by CACOVID, a coalition of good spirited Nigerians who pulled funds together to assist in ameliorating the pains of Nigerians as COVID-19 struck states and rendered many helpless.

Though some governors said they were making preparation to distribute the food to the targeted persons, some others said the foods were kept in anticipation of second wave of the deadly coronavirus in the country, Nigerians were not ready to listen to them..

While the Nigerian Governors Forum and the group that made up the CACOVID defended the action of the governors, Nigerians were not in the mood to accept their defense, saying the governors were wicked and insensitive to the plight of Nigerian citizens to have kept the foods in the warehouse while hunger ravaged homes.

Some Nigerian youths have called for  the release of the youths arrested saying whatever happened in Nigeria is a fallout of the bad governance in the country, hence the youths should be released if not a new wave of protest may begin.