Many residents on Tuesday rushed to the Odi-Olowo office in Osogbo, Osun State. They looted the warehouse where food items were stored by the Global Food Initiative.
This happened after reports surfaced about rising tensions in Osogbo. The operators of the cheap food scheme had vanished, leaving many people who paid for food items without their goods.
On Monday, many residents who had put down money for food at lower prices gathered at the office. They were waiting for the operators to open for business.
A resident named Mistura shared her experience. She said she deposited N300,000 last Wednesday to buy 11 bags of rice at N27,000 each. Mistura mentioned that she was supposed to collect the items one week after payment. She added that those 11 bags of rice would have cost her N605,000 at the current market price of N55,000 per bag.
Another resident, Olamide, said she paid N1.2 million for food items meant for her stepdaughter's upcoming wedding. "I got here this morning and found a crowd waiting to be helped, but the operators were nowhere in sight. I was warned, but I never thought they would run away this early. The items I paid for were for my stepdaughter’s wedding," she explained.
On Tuesday, many more residents who had paid for food items gathered at the office, waiting for the operators to return. The owner of the building asked the crowd to be patient. He requested that they allow security agents to find the operators and figure out how to get their money back. But the angry residents refused to leave.
Later in the day, around 4 PM, some people broke into the operators' warehouse and started looting food items. They took bags of rice, noodles, and groundnut oil. Reports indicate that the looters ignored the heavy rain while a few police officers tried to control the situation.
As of now, the looting is still happening, with security agents using tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. More details will come later.
Drop your comment
No comments yet — be the first to drop the gist 👇