The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, says the looting of warehouses and shops by hoodlums were not necessarily caused by poverty but greed.
Adesina who disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, insisted that the looting spree which occurred in days after the #EndSARS protest was propelled by greed and criminality.
He said he completely disagrees with the idea that the pandemonium which accompanied the #EndSARS protests is a true reflection of the people’s hunger and anger.
“I wouldn’t agree completely with that (that the looters are hungry) because criminality is criminality, would you justify armed robbery because the man was poor?
“Just as you can’t justify armed robbery because a man was poor and then he took a gun to rob another person. You can’t also justify the lootings that are going on. It is pure criminality.
“It is not everybody engaged in that looting that is hungry, that is the truth. It is pure greed and criminality,” Adesina said.
He added that a situation was created for anarchy in the country and this created room for criminality and looting.
Adesina insisted that the looters are not necessarily hungry and angry they took advantage of the breakdown of law and order.
The President’s spokesman said further that, “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 wouldn’t happen.
“Therefore, it was a corollary to the mere anarchic situation that came on the country because of the protests. If you didn’t have people burning police stations, killing policemen, burning private and public property, you wouldn’t have this spate of looting.”
