Police arrest two suspects over looted rice in Edo

The police in Edo State have arrested two suspects in connection with the looted palliative rice stored in a parked truck during the #EndBadgovernance protest in Urora, near Benin City.

Edo State’s Police Commissioner, Funsho Adegboye, disclosed this in Benin City.

According to him,  the suspects have confessed their involvement in the looting of the rice. He said  the suspect would soon be charged to court for prosecution as soon as investigations are completed.

The commissioner however cautioned against carrying rumours about the unshared government rice.

On August 1, the commencement of the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest, a viral video of residents looting rice at the truck packed at the warehouse at Urora quarters in Uhunmwonde Local Council surfaced on several social media platforms.

In the 40-second video, the residents were seen and heard saying that the warehouse belonged to the state government, with most of the residents seen carrying more than one bag of 10kg of rice.

The development led to an altercation between the Edo State government and the Edo All Progressives Congress (APC) over the ownership of the rice.

While the State Government denied ownership, it blamed the video on the APC.

On its part, APC said the video allegedly exposed Governor Godwin Obaseki’s deliberate plan to deprive Edo people of accessing palliative measures.

However, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Edo chapter, Dr Irekpono Omoike, clarified at a news conference held at the Chancellery of the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin that the location where the rice was looted belonged to a vendor contracted by Edo CAN’s implementation committee for the Christian feeding programme.

He explained that the second phase of the programme, aimed at distributing relief materials to vulnerable Christian groups, was funded by the Edo State government with N2 billion.

Omoike explained: “There is a very important need to correct a wrong notion that the rice being distributed by the Edo State government was supplied by the Federal Government and re-bagged. This is misinformation. It is a very wrong notion that needs to be corrected.

“Earlier this year, the Edo State chapter of CAN met with Governor Godwin Obaseki, who shared his concern about reaching out to vulnerable persons and the poor, who are bearing the hardship of the economic downturn in the country.

“After the meeting, an implementation committee for the Christian feeding programme was set up, where we designed a programme on how to reach out to the poor with food palliatives. The governor released the first batch of funding for the programme, which is N1 billion to purchase rice.

“This was done, and in May 2024, we kicked off the distribution of the first phase at the Baptist Convention Ground in Benin City, with the distribution of 60,000 bags of 10kg of rice.”

“For the second phase, the Edo governor released another batch of N1 billion to replicate the exercise. We purchased another consignment and distributed it through the structure of CAN.

“This process has been ongoing since July. In the last few days, we have successfully distributed to all the churches that did not receive the first batch across the 18 local councils, and we reached 56,250.

“There is another consignment in this second phase, just as we did in the first phase, meant for churches not under CAN since this was done in partnership with CAN.”

Also, the Secretary of the CAN’s implementation committee for the programme, Rev Osagie Ehrunmwunse, maintained that the truck in the viral video belonged to a logistics company distributing the rice.

Ehrunmwunse noted that the truck broke down the previous night, laden with rice meant for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Latter Day Saints, vulnerable children, orphanages, and widows.

He insisted that the looting occurred not in a government warehouse but in a facility belonging to one of the rice suppliers.