VIDEO: Osogbo residents loot warehouse after operators failed to deliver food orders

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

Residents of Osogbo, Osun State, on Tuesday looted a warehouse operated by the Global Food Initiative after operators of a cheap food scheme reportedly failed to open their office on Monday, leaving customers who had paid for food items stranded.

The incident occurred at the organisation’s premises in the Odi-Olowo area of Osogbo, where residents who had paid various sums for food items gathered, hoping that the operators would return and reopen the office.

The development followed Monday’s gathering by customers who had gone to collect food items they had paid for in advance. Some reportedly arrived at the premises as early as 7:30 a.m. but found the building locked and were unable to reach the operators by telephone.

On Tuesday, some of the affected customers returned to the premises from about 8 a.m. and remained there for several hours, while security personnel, including members of the Amotekun Corps, were reportedly deployed to maintain order. The customers remained at the location until about 4 p.m., when the security personnel left.

The situation later escalated when some people reportedly forced their way into the warehouse and opened it for others to enter and remove food items, including bags of rice, noodles, vegetable oil and other commodities.

The looting continued despite a heavy downpour, with residents reportedly moving in and out of the warehouse with food items as police operatives arrived at the scene and fired shots into the air in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

The owner of the building reportedly appealed to the aggrieved residents to remain calm and allow security agents to identify the operators and work out measures to recover the money paid by customers. However, the appeal reportedly failed to stop the looting.

Some hoodlums allegedly took advantage of the situation to steal from investors who had removed items from the warehouse, threatening some of them with axes and cutlasses and forcing them to surrender the items. Security personnel were said to have prevented the situation from escalating further as the warehouse was eventually emptied of its contents.