The Adamawa State Police Command announced that its operatives had apprehended 25 youths suspected of being involved in the looting that occurred earlier in the day in Yola, the state capital.
Hoodlums broke into government warehouses and some private stores early Sunday morning and stole food and non-food items stored there.
In a statement to the media, Police Public Relations Officer SP Suleiman Nguroje stated that the 25 suspects were apprehended and the items they stole were recovered from them.
Assuring that the looting was under control, Nguroje stated that the focus had shifted to enforcing Governor Ahmadu Fintiri’s statewide curfew.
Fintiri had issued the curfew in the early afternoon, not only in Yola, where the looting occurred, but throughout the state, stating that it was necessary to increase the effectiveness of efforts to stamp out hoodlum activity.
Nguroje stated that the state Commissioner of Police, Afolabi Babatola, who personally went into the streets to supervise curfew compliance, had to form a task force to ensure compliance.
“Not quite satisfied with the initial level of compliance, the CP constituted a task force involving personnel from the operations department and sister agencies,” Nguroje said, assuring that the curfew was now fully in place.
In a related development, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Yola area office has been confirmed as one of the establishments targeted by the Sunday morning looting in Yola.
Ladan Ayuba, the agency’s Yola area head of operations, told reporters alongside the police PRO that the hoodlums gained access to the agency’s stores by breaking down the walls and stealing food and non-food items kept there.
“It’s sad because the items in those stores were meant to be distributed to poor Nigerians to cushion the hardship they are facing,” he said.
