The Adamawa State Police Command said on Sunday evening that its operatives had arrested 25 youths allegedly involved in the looting that took place earlier in the day in Yola, the state capital.
Hoodlums had broken into government warehouses and some private stores in the morning of Sunday and carted away food and non-food items kept in those facilities.
Addressing newsmen on the incident, Police Public Relations Officer SP Suleiman Nguroje said the 25 suspects were picked up and the items they stole were recovered from them.
Assuring that the looting had been brought under control, Nguroje said attention had shifted to enforcing the statewide curfew imposed by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.
Fintiri had ordered the curfew in the early afternoon, not only in Yola, where looting took place but across the whole state, saying it was necessary to enhance the effectiveness of efforts to stamp out the activities of hoodlums.
Nguroje said the state Commissioner of Police, Afolabi Babatola, who personally went into the streets to supervise compliance with the curfew, had to set up a task force to firm up compliance.
“Not quite satisfied with the initial level of compliance, the CP constituted a task force involving personnel from the operations department and sister agencies,” Nguroje said, assuring that the curfew was now fully in place.
In a related development, the Yola area office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has been confirmed as one of the establishments affected by the Sunday morning looting in Yola.
The Yola area head of operations of the agency, Ladan Ayuba, who addressed newsmen alongside the police PRO, said the hoodlums accessed the stores of the agency by breaking down the walls and taking away food and non-food items kept there.
“It’s sad because the items in those stores were meant to be distributed to poor Nigerians to cushion the hardship they are facing,” he said.