The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has stated that the looting of warehouses and shops by angry and oppressed Nigerians was not caused by extreme poverty in the country, but by the violent protests that broke out in the country, after the ordered shooting of peaceful EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate, in Lagos, on Tuesday night, 20th October,
Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme, on Thursday, he stated that attributing the looting to poverty, is like justifying armed robbery.
“Criminality is criminality. Would it justify armed robbery, because the man was poor? Would it justify armed robbery, because the man did not have money? Just as you cannot justify armed robbery, because a man was poor, and took a gun to rob another person, you cannot also justify the looting”, he said.
Adesina claimed the protracted protests provided an atmosphere for looting to take place.
He said that if Police Stations were not burnt down, there would not have been a breakdown of law and order.
His words: “Criminality will always be criminality, and mere anarchy promotes criminality. What has happened in the last two or three weeks, led to what has happened now. If there was cohesion and tranquillity in society, this would not happen.
“Therefore, it was corollary to the mere anarchic situation that came on the country, because of the protests. If you did not have people burning Police Stations, killing Policemen, burning private and public property, you would not have this spate of looting.
“So, I do not agree that it is all about poverty. Yes, in any country, you will have at any given time, you will have people who are poor, who are hungry, and that is one of the reasons why you have government; is to ensure that the number of poor and hungry people is reduced.”
When challenged with the fact that Nigeria had become the poverty capital of the world, the Femi Adesina stated that the high level of poverty was caused by 60 years of mismanagement of public funds, which could not easily be addressed in two years.
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