Angry Osun residents loot warehouse after cheap food scam

Residents in Osogbo, Osun State, looted a warehouse belonging to the Global Food Initiative after the operators of a cheap food scheme disappeared. The scheme had offered discounted food items, with customers paying in advance for goods they were to collect later. According to the Daily Trust, a 50kg bag of rice was sold for ₦27,000, 25 litres of vegetable oil for ₦30,000, and a pack of spaghetti for ₦10,000.

Some customers reportedly paid large sums, with one woman paying ₦300,000 for 11 bags of rice and another ₦1.2 million for food items for her stepdaughter's wedding. The operators shut the premises and became unreachable, prompting hundreds of customers to gather at the warehouse demanding food items or refunds. The crowd eventually broke into the warehouse, removing food items such as bags of rice and kegs of groundnut oil.

The looting occurred after a day of protests at the premises, with customers seeking refunds or the delivery of goods they had paid for. The Daily Post Nigeria reported that customers, including Mistura and Olamide, had paid significantly less than the market price for the food items, with Mistura saying she would have paid about ₦605,000 for the 11 bags of rice at the prevailing market price.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch, Punch Nigeria, Daily Trust, Daily Post Nigeria — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.