[JUST IN] They’ve ruined our businesses, victims of Kano looting cry out

Kano State residents are counting their losses over this week’s violent hunger protest in the state. Relations of the dead are also mourning the death of their loved ones while traders and businesses also lament the billions they lost to the mayhem.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶

Traders, businessmen and companies affected by the massive looting of their goods cried out that unless government came to their rescue, their business had been ruined.

The President of Nigeria’s largest grain market, Dawanau, Alhaji Muntaka Isa, put the losses incurred by the market from the commencement of the protest till date at over N2 billion.

Alhaji Usman Darma, the former Deputy President of the Kano State Chamber of Commerce, Mines, and Agriculture (KACCIMA) said losses incurred in Kano State within the five days of the protest were over N100 billion.

The General Manager of the Barakat Stores, Alhaji Muhammad Sani, disclosed that the supermarket lost properties worth millions of naira. The loss was principally made up of goods that were carted away by the hoodlums.

He, however, commended the Nigerian Army, police, operatives of State Security Service and Nigeria Civil Defence Corps for intercepting and recovering some of the stolen goods.

As traders and companies count material losses, other people are recounting how their loved ones were lost to the crisis.

They’ve ruined our businesses victims of Kano looting cry out

Hajiya Maryam Sani Gyaranya is mourning the death of her son, 15-year-old Kashifu Abdullahi. Gyaranya disclosed that she warned the deceased not to participate in the protest. “But as it was his destiny to die, he did not listen to me. On that fateful day, when we were going home, I asked where he was going, he told he was going outside to see his friends. I then warned him not to join the protesters. He assured me that he would not participate. Unfortunately, just some minutes after he left, they brought a message to me that he had been killed.”

Aisha Isah Baba, mother of another victim, Abdulkadir Labaran Babah Alfindiki, popularly called Abdul, disclosed that on that tragic day,” my son left home a few minutes after 10 a.m. with the intention to go to his place of work only for me to learn later that he was killed.

“No one informed me that he had died until when his uncle went to the hospital and brought the corpse,” the mother said. She disclosed further the the boy was killed at Kofar Nassarawa during the protest.

Another teenager, Umar Abubakar Hausawa, was said to have been killed at Kofar Nassarawa. He was said to have gone there with the intention of calling his younger brothers to withdraw from the protesters. The deceased brother, Rabiu Abubakar, disclosed to Saturday Tribune that he was not among the protesters but was actually asking his younger ones to withdraw from the protest.

“When he was told that our younger brothers had joined the protesters, he was angry and told our mother that he was going to call them back. That was how he went and met his untimely death there,” Abubakar told Saturday Tribune.

Abubakar added that it was the deceased’s siblings that informed their parents about the ugly development. “When we were informed about what happened we rushed to the scene and found my brother lying in the pool of his blood. We took him to Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital but there was no bed to admit him. We decided to take him to a private hospital where he underwent an emergency surgery. But later in the morning he gave up the ghost.”

According to him, the family made an initial payment of N250,000 before the deceased was made to undergo the surgery.

“On the spot the hospital demanded N450,000 for the surgery. We were able to raise N250,000 and the hospital carried out the surgery on the promise that the balance of N200,000 would be settled later,” he disclosed.

He hinted that residents of Rijiyar Lemo residents would not forget quickly how a bride-to-be, Firdausi Muhammad, was killed in the course of the protest.

It was learnt that the late Firdausi Muhammad who was about to get married sometimes next week was killed by a stray bullet that hit her while she was on an errand in the neighborhood.

Alhaji Sulaiman Muhammad, whose shop was looted along Zoo Road disclosed that what pained him most was that on the eve of the protest, he went to to buy goods and restocked his shop only for “those enemies of progress to loot everything and vandalise my shop.”

He, however, stated that he had left the hoodlums to God for judgement adding that if they were not caught to face their punishment on earth, they would in the hereafter.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa disclosed that the police tried to maintain law and order in Rijiyar Lemo, but the youths of the area tried to overpower them.

The PPRO stated that the youths who were in their hundreds tried to trespass into people’s shops to steal their goods. “Our men tried to disperse them but instead of them to go back to their houses they turned violent and started throwing stones at our personnel, inflicting injuries on them. In fact some of them tried to set the Rijiyar Lemo Police Divison on fire.”

He said the situation warranted the reinforcement of more personnel in order to maintain law and order adding that the law allowed the police to defend themselves.