• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Abuja COVID-19 palliatives hunters move to Kuje Area Council, cripple economic activities

Abuja COVID-19 palliatives hunters move to Kuje Area Council, cripple economic activities

Protesters in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja in search of warehouses harbouring COVID-19 palliatives on Tuesday locked down Kuje, headquarters of the Kuje Area Council of the city.

The protesters, who were seen moving about in their hundreds, had invaded the Council Secretariat as early as 8am and blocked strategic places to prevent the staff from moving, while those who got in earlier were locked inside.

The #EndSARS protests that began in Nigeria about two weeks ago had last week turned violent and became a looting and vandalism spree after it was suspected that hoodlums had infiltrated the ranks of the protesters. The drama soon moved to COVID-19 palliatives warehouses across the country, with angry youths breaking into and carting away food and other items stored in the warehouses.

On Monday, palliative centre in the Gwagwalada area of Abuja was raided.

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As the search for more warehouses continued on Tuesday, BusinessDay gathered that the protesters had invaded the Kuje Area Council secretariat in search of the over 100 motorcycles parked within the premises.

One of the council security staff told BusinessDay that the protesters were, however, “disappointed because, unknown to them, the council chairman had late last night evacuated the motorcycles to an unknown place for safe keeping”.

The visibly angry youths later moved round the city in search of available warehouses.

They were, however, repelled at the Federal Road Safety Corps junction by a joint military task force which had been put in place for about a week in the area.

The joint task force fired bullets into the air to scare the protesters as they made moves to vandalise stores located on the main street.

As at the time of this report, the military had cordoned off strategic places, especially around the Kuje Correctional Centre, the council secretariat and the Kuje General Hospital, while traders have shut down Kuje market and the major shops and supermarkets to prevent looting.

All the fuel stations had also shut down as soon as the protesters moved into the secretariat.

The angry protesters later resorted to burning of tyres and chanting war songs as they moved around the town.

They were still unable to access any warehouse as at the time of filing this report, even as they were still searching for one.

Tuesday’s attempt on Kuje followed the protesters’ successful outing on Monday at Gwagwalada Area Council, a neighbouring council to Kuje, where they looted COVID-19 palliatives.

Residents are now staying indoors as the rampaging youths have taken over the streets.