The scenes in Jimeta, the capital city of Yola, Adamawa State were unfortunate and condemnable in all ramifications. Hoodlums were spotted in numbers breaking and stealing food items in a warehouse reserved by the government at the Kwanan Waya junction. The situation escalated to attacking people with machetes and breaking into business premises carting away properties worth millions of naira.
Simply put, one needs not be told that stealing, annihilation, and wanton destruction of government properties are criminal acts and whosoever indulges in that must be penalised. And no responsible citizen will in any way involve in destroying and looting government property. The happenings portrayed nothing but the highest level of moral decadence in our climes. Many youths failed to understand that some irresponsible and shameless individuals have a motive, to take advantage of their idleness and put them into all sorts of shenanigan activities.
It’s general knowledge that the situation in the country is getting tougher by the day. But a Nigerian has no option but to look for a legitimate way to survive this hardship which will surely come to an end not through stealing from governments.
Unfortunately, our societies are indeed full of greedy, irresponsible, and unpatriotic individuals whose efforts are to destroy government properties not knowing that they are doing it for none other than themselves.
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Ideally, if it appears that government can no longer protect its properties, how about the unarmed citizens? People should always rethink. Like-minded and critically equipped minds know better the grave outcomes of such happenings.
The timely response of the Adamawa State government to take control of the incident is commendable as that helped in mitigating the effect and stopping the vandals from reaching other targeted stores and warehouses. The state government declared a 24-hour curfew that will ensure the cessation of movement within the Jimeta-Yola metropolis as a good security strategy to take control over the issue.
A thorough investigation must be carried out to make sure that the perpetrators of this shameless and criminal act are brought to face the wrath of the law so that others who are planning to embark on this unfortunate act in some other parts of the state will know the potential consequences of their planned action.
Also, security operations must be strengthened in the other parts of the state to make sure that the government properties are protected from hoodlums’ attack as the happenings in Yola will perhaps entice others to consider doing the same as experienced in Numan Local Government Area of the state.
The federal government in collaboration with the state should devise the means to help people in this critical situation of untold hardship because if care is not taken, action like this might escalate to another state of the federation.
Mubarak Shuaybu Shelleng wrote from Yola
