Sunday Ani, Lagos
Five persons, four women and a man, were stampeded to death earlier today as residents of Alahu Osumba, Kikiri Local Government Area of Lagos State, and its environs scrambled over food items packed in a warehouse along Alahu Osumba Road.
All roads led to the warehouse as news filtered around 8 am that rioters had broken into the warehouse where COVID-19 food palliatives running into hundreds of bags and cartons were stocked.
Hundreds of residents from Agboju, Alakija, Maza-Maza, Mile 2, Comfort Obo, Kirikiri and the surrounding settlements trooped into the warehouse scrambling over such food items as rice, garri, indomie noodles, spaghetti as well as sugar.
A witness told Daily Sun that the victims died when they were overpowered by the surging crowd who marched over them.
The warehouse is at Monkey Village along Old Ojo road and behind #Kirikiri Happy Homes / comfort Oboh in #Lagos.
pic.twitter.com/uqZqklzt0Z— #EndSARS Ola Sman (@mypreciouswld) October 22, 2020
Residents who knew about the storage, cashing in on the #ENDSARS protest, broke into the warehouse and carted away all the food items.
Investigation revealed that when soldiers stormed the place in their Hillux van, they only shot into the air to momentarily scare the crowd away while they loaded their van with bags of rice, garri and cartons of noodles. The soldiers were reported to have left the crowd to continue the looting after they had had their fill.
When our reporter arrived to the scene, it was observed that some people had more than they needed and were even selling to willing buyers at reduced prices, while others wore long faces as they could not get much. Some people looted as many as 10 bags of garri and 12 bags of rice, while others carted a few sachets of Indomie noodles.
The people were livid with anger such that after they emptied the warehouse, they started removing part of the wall zinc and the wooden palate used to stock the food items.
Daily Sun also gathered that the mob attempted to break into the Kirikiri Prisons but they were repelled by soldiers who promptly responded to distress calls. As at the time this report, gunshots were still rending the air around the prisons to scare away the mob.
