Osun begins return of looted properties to owners

Governor Oyetola

By OLAJIDE IDOWU

The Osun government, on Thursday, commenced the process of returning recovered looted items to their respective owners.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that government and private property had, on Oct. 24, been looted in some parts of the state by some hoodlums, hiding under the recent EndSARS protests.

Following the mass looting, Gov. Gboyega Oyetola had imposed a 24-hour curfew on the state same day and gave the looters 72 hours within which to return the looted items.

NAN reports that the 72-hour ultimatum given to the looters elapsed on Oct. 28.

The governor directed the looters to drop their loot in places where they could be picked by government officials or at government-recognised and selected designations.

While returning the looted items to their respective owners at the Government House, Osogbo, Mr Samson Owoyokun, the Secretary of the Ad-hoc Committee on Recovery of Looted Items, said that 14 local governments were affected by the looting and vandalism.

Owoyokun, who said that the items were dropped anonymously by the looters, added that the committee had been going round to pick them up.

He, however, said that the task force was now on a house-to-house search to recover more looted items.

“The committee was inaugurated on Monday (Oct. 26) and we have since been going round the state. Fourteen local governments were adversely affected by the wanton destruction and massive looting that took place on Saturday.

“We want to thank the governor for granting a 72-hour amnesty to all looters to return the looted items.

“We are working in conjunction with Amotekun, the Joint Task Force (JTF) and the police. We have been going round the nooks and crannies of the state to pick all the items that were dropped by the road side, in front of houses and we have been able to recover quite a lot.

“The people have heard and responded to the call by the governor; they have been cooperating and dropping the looted items in their custody.

“The Amotekun and JTF are on the streets now; we have intelligence report and video coverage of the houses and the neighbourhood where government and commercial items are hidden.

“The 72-hour amnesty offer is now over and so, we are going into houses for the search operation,” he said. (NAN)