Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Residents of Jalingo the Taraba state capital on Sunday defied the 24 hour curfew imposed on the city by the state government and have gone on a plundering spree, vandalizing the permanent site of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camp and one of the state’s isolation centers among other locations in the state capital.
When Daily Sun correspondent visited the camp located at Sebri on the outskirts of Jalingo, hundreds of persons were seeing moving away with various items including mattresses, cooking pots and other utensils, furniture and several other items.
The Taraba state government had, on Saturday night, imposed a 24 hour curfew on Jalingo the state capital to forestall further breakdown of law and order, following the forceful take over of government warehouses and looting of COVID-19 palliatives by irate youth in Jalingo on Saturday evening.
Some of the people who spoke to our correspondent said that they had no grudges against the NYSC scheme or people coming to serve in the state but they had to do everything they could to survive.
“We are not doing this because we have problem with NYSC. The truth is that since the government has refused to listen to our needs and help us to help ourselves, we will take anything we can get from here and they will be compared to replace it. If not, we would have even burnt down the camp. But our grudge is against the government. They don’t have money to pay and help us so we will have to help ourselves. They will have the money to buy and replace everything we have taken away because they know this is important to them”.
The situation at the isolation center located on the premises of the NYSC camp was also completely vandalized and everything plundered including doors and windows on the building.
Other areas touched by the irate youth include the state’s office of SUBEB, some private warehouses among others.
Spokesperson of the state police command DSP David Misal told our correspondent in a phone interview that the command has deployed men to the field to ensure the restoration of law and order and the process was ongoing with “remarkable results as movement is now largely contained and and the town is becoming quiet. However we can not ascertain the level of damage or casualties at this point as our main priority right now is to restore normalcy”.
Daily Sun recall that irate youth in Taraba on Saturday evening broke into Taraba state government warehouses, carting away tons of food items even as about six persons reportedly lost their lives in the cause of the stampede.
