By Brave Dickson
The task force constituted by Governor Nyesom Wike on illegal street trading and motor parks has been accused of using the coronavirus situation to steal people’s goods in Rivers State.
A security expert, Dr Steve Wordu who said this while analysing the various dimension of crime and criminality that might confront the state, predicted more burglary if the government lockdown continues without palliatives.
He told our correspondent that: “In time past, whenever there is food shortage due to an emergency situation arising from war, disease etc, it provokes criminality in different forms.
“In Rivers State, the first set of people to take advantage of this coronavirus situation to commit crimes are the task force set up by Wike led-state government.
“The task force whose duty it is to enforce government policies are the ones who are busy looting people’s goods, all in the name of confiscation.
“They are busy seizing goods from traders who are hawking on the street and from those in the market and are converting those seized goods to themselves.
“If this lockdown of the state continues, there will be breaking and entering of people’s shops to steal especially if the government refuses to give palliatives to the people it has ordered to stay home.
“There might be another dimension of the crime in the state wherein government officials will siphon monies meant for the provision of relief materials to the people.
“The situation might worsen if the government didn’t pay its workers before locking down the state and such insensitive on the part of government can breed crimes during this period.”
