The authorities in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Adamawa have relaxed the 24-hour curfew imposed on Sunday after the looting of food stores and warehouses in the state capital, Yola.
Hundreds of people were captured on video, breaking into warehouses, carrying off sacks of grain, cartons of pasta and other household items.
On the orders of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, security personnel had been deployed to enforce the curfew.
The state’s Deputy Governor, Kaleptapwa Farauta, has now said the curfew will now only be for 12 hours, beginning at 18:00 local time.
“We are expecting that the people of Adamawa state, the good citizens of Adamawa State will go about their lawful businesses and be calm because calm has returned to town,” the Reuters news agency quotes the deputy governor as saying.
“The security agencies will continue to maintain peace, still continue to maintain their checkpoints, and there will be a lot of patrols going on, not just in the state capital but also in our local government areas.”
Recalling the events of Sunday, one resident, Hauwa’u Musa, who lives near a warehouse that was raided told BBC Hausa that she had to defend her own home “to prevent some of the hoodlums from carrying my own property too because they came in force, holding sticks in their hands.
“The damage done was very large because the number of sacks of grain I saw people carrying out was unimaginable.”
Last month, Nigeria ended a fuel subsidy regime, leading to soaring food and petrol prices.
The economy has also been weakened by recession and the ongoing fallout from the Covid pandemic.