A truck carrying food items that included oil and sugar, intended for ‘Iftar’, the Muslims’ breaking of fast period, meant for distribution in the northern part of the country, was hijacked in Gombe State.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Gombe Police Command, DSP Buhari Abdullahi, the hijacking occurred because people had seen the initial offloading of the items and began to panic, wondering where the remaining items were going.
He disclosed further to reporters that the truck, which was conveying the items donated by Seyi Tinubu was attacked after the driver had already offloaded about 90 per cent of the items at the All Progressives Congress secretariat.
Abdullahi said, “The truck was carrying Seyi Tinubu’s foodstuffs moving around northern Nigeria for Iftar, breakfast. There were packs of oil and sugar packages in several cartons there. Unfortunately, there wasn’t involvement of security until when the issue escalated, and we observed that something was happening.”
The cop said that the police responded to the situation and invited the truck driver for questioning after confirming that the items were meant for distribution in Gombe State.
He added, “We invited the truck driver, and he explained the nature of the items he was conveying. He confirmed that it was meant for Gombe State, and he had offloaded about 90 per cent of the items at the All Progressives Congress secretariat, the remaining items, he claimed he was taking it somewhere before the hijack.
“Unfortunately, the lack of security personnel on the ground until the situation escalated allowed the hijacking to occur.”
Following the incident, the DSP, Abdullahi, noted that engaging the services of security personnel for crowd management was crucial when distributing or conveying such items to prevent such incidents.
9News Nigeria reports that part of the statement revealed; “The ideal thing is when you want to distribute anything, you are supposed to engage the services of security personnel for crowd management, but nobody informed the police until the truck was hijacked and people began to carry those items but you know we can’t allow it happen we responded.
“It was because people had seen what was there at their initial point of offloading, so people started panicking, and they wanted to know where the remaining was going. It was in the middle of the road that they hijacked it,” he added.
On his part, a stern advocate of good governance, Bulus Adamu, while reacting to the development, observed that the looting of palliatives highlighted the desperation and hunger in the land and thus urged philanthropists to devise pragmatic solutions to assist the masses in alleviating their suffering.
“They are hungry and need food. The government should do more to help our youths. If I were a philanthropist, I would seek out workable solutions instead of exposing people to risks.
