A crowd of residents has stormed the warehouse of the Cross River State government where COVID-19 palliatives donated by the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) were stored.
The incident occurred on Friday in Calabar, the state capital amid reports of similar incidents in other states.
A group of youths had embarked on a peaceful protest against the excesses of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Cross River.
They took their protest to the Governor’s office in Calabar where they called for a reform of the police, amid the #EndSARS demonstration which held in other states.
After making their demands known, the protesters were said to be on their way from the governor’s office before a crowd of angry residents took over.
In their numbers, the irate residents stormed the warehouse and made away with food items worth millions of naira.
From there, they went further to loot valuables from shopping malls and vandalised some banks and a police station, as well as the state government’s newspaper house, among others.
Condemning the incident, the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade, called on residents to desist from the destruction of properties.
He explained that the state took delivery of the food items on October 12 from CACOVID and were awaiting distribution to various Local Government Areas (LGAs) across the state.
Governor Ayade added that considering the distance of about seven hours from Calabar to most LGAs, the government was concluding plans to distribute them before the incident happened.
He called on residents, especially the youths to protect the state’s properties rather than allow criminally-minded persons to destroy them.
– Channels TV