Osogbo Food Bonanza: Angry Customers Loot Warehouse After Operators Vanish

Osogbo Food Bonanza: Angry Customers Loot Warehouse After Operators Vanish

The Osogbo food scheme controversy has taken a dramatic turn, with angry customers and other residents breaking into the warehouse of Global Food Initiative and carting away food items after the operators allegedly disappeared with customers’ advance payments.

Newstrends.ng had earlier reported how customers who paid for discounted food items besieged the company’s Odi-Olowo outlet in Osogbo, Osun State, after the operators failed to open for business or respond to calls.

The situation escalated on Tuesday when more residents returned to the premises, hoping to either collect the food items they had paid for or obtain an explanation from the operators.

According to reports, the crowd remained at the facility for hours before some people eventually forced their way into the warehouse and began removing food items.

The items taken reportedly included bags of rice, noodles, groundnut oil, spaghetti, semovita and other food commodities.

Residents from nearby communities were also said to have joined the rush, with some carrying away 50kg bags of rice, large containers of vegetable oil and other food products.

The looting reportedly continued despite heavy rainfall and the presence of security personnel deployed to maintain order.

Police officers were said to have fired shots into the air in an attempt to disperse the crowd, although the intervention initially failed to stop the looting.

There were also reports that some people who had not invested in the scheme took advantage of the confusion to remove food items from the warehouse.

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The situation reportedly became more chaotic when some alleged hoodlums threatened customers who had collected food items, with reports that weapons including axes and cutlasses were used to force some people to surrender what they had taken.

The development came barely a day after customers gathered at the same premises following the disappearance of the operators.

Global Food Initiative had attracted residents by offering food commodities at prices substantially below prevailing market rates, with customers required to pay in advance and return later to collect their purchases.

One customer, Mistura, reportedly said she paid ₦300,000 for 11 bags of rice at ₦27,000 per bag, while another customer, Olamide, said she paid ₦1.2 million for food items intended for her stepdaughter’s forthcoming wedding.

Other customers have also alleged that they paid millions of naira into the scheme. However, the various amounts cited by individual customers should not be interpreted as a confirmed total loss, as no official figure for the money collected by the company has been established.

The attraction for many customers was the unusually low prices. The company reportedly offered a 50kg bag of rice for ₦27,000, while a 25-litre container of vegetable oil was reportedly sold for ₦30,000.

The sudden disappearance of the operators triggered panic among customers who had already made payments but had yet to receive their goods.

Some affected customers also alleged that warnings about the scheme had been broadcast on a local radio programme before the operators disappeared.

According to the allegations, the warning prompted some customers to rush to the premises before their scheduled collection dates.

There were also claims that the operators had brought additional food items to the premises but failed to open the outlet because of concerns about their safety.

Those claims have not been independently established, while the operators themselves have not publicly explained what happened to the business, the food stocks or the money reportedly collected from customers.

The controversy has also generated calls for residents to avoid turning the incident into an ethnic dispute, with some affected customers stressing that people from different backgrounds were among those who participated in the scheme.

Meanwhile, the Osun State Police Command has yet to announce a confirmed total amount allegedly lost by customers or publicly disclose the whereabouts of the operators.

The warehouse looting has further complicated efforts to establish the actual scale of the alleged losses, identify the rightful owners of the food items removed from the premises and determine what happened to customers’ advance payments.

For the affected customers, the immediate concern remains recovering either the money paid into the food scheme or the food items they purchased, while security authorities are expected to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the operators and the subsequent looting.

As of the latest reports, Global Food Initiative operators remained unreachable, while the full circumstances surrounding the collapse of the Osogbo food scheme remained unclear.