Hungry youths snatch food packs from trekking pupils
PHOTOS: AP Photo/Sunday Alamba
If you are one of the parents whose children trek to school from home, a new development in Minna, Niger State capital will get you worried.
A new dimension has recently been introduced to hunger-induced crime in Minna, as hungry youths now go about snatching food packs from nursery and primary school children on their way to school.
One Fati Sanusi, a nursery two pupil of Mega Stars Academy, located in Kpakungu, Minna, was said to have cried to school, alleging that her food pack, prepared by her mother was snatched from her by a grown up boy, who ran away even as she cried.
Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Cecilia Bunmi Koseemani, who confirmed the incident exclusively to The Guardian, said she and other teachers had hectic time pleading with the little girl to stop crying.
“We had to send for her mother who prevailed on the four-year-old girl before she stopped crying. The mother later rushed back home to prepare Indomie for her instead of the rice meal that was initially snatched from her.”
Koseemani appealed to parents to try and put their little school children in the care of grown up schoolmates, so as to avoid such things in the future, describing the incident as a reflection of the prevailing hardship in the country.
Several instances of hunger-induced crimes have been reported in Niger State in recent times.
It was reported that a housewife stabbed her rival to death over the modalities for sharing a measure of Gaari (Cassava flour) brought home by their husband. There were other cases of people stealing food still on fire, as well as women collecting food items from sellers in the market and deliberately taking to their heels instead of paying.
When caught, it has always been pleading for leniency and understanding, citing hunger, occasioned by the economic situation in the country as reasons for their actions.
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12 Comments
Rubbish. ‘Hunger induced’ crime my foot. Crime is crime, please don’t make excuses for them.
To call it hunger-induced crime is not to justify it; it’s simply to explain it, to understand why it happens. As a society we need to understand why certain things, in particular bad things, happen in order to find solutions to them.
With due respect, I have a feeling you may not be as accommodating to some killer herdsmen if they try to explain their behaviour as provoked by those who steal their livestock etc or the robber who is compelled to rob cause of a dying mum that needs hospital treatment. These people where robbing innocent kids for Christ’s sake and we are trying to understand why? It’s immoral and disgraceful. God help us!
I agree with you: It’s immoral; it’s disgraceful. And the people involved should be punished. But we also have a duty to seek to understand why such things happen or we’d never be able to develop policy. Even with Boko Haram we still try to understand why it is that young Muslim Northerners are still being so easily recruited by the murderous sect, which is why even the the US and other countries that have provided assistance in the war against Boko Haram terrorism encourage the government to do something about the rampant youth unemployment in that part of the country,
I disagree with you bro. But I must express my profound respect for your opinion and temperament……. and patience
The hunger is getting real, soon you people who voted changi will eat stone as meat.
What about the people who didn’t vote change or stayed at home on the election day? So they are eating meat while those who voted are eating stones?
This is a wake up call to Nigerians. Let us elect our leaders based on clear cut vision, ideology, goal and well articulated plan for the country.
If I come out with an umbrella because I saw the weather forecast on tv……..it sure would rain but I wont get as wet as you. I was ready for the hardship……
That is why the “Change begins with me” social awareness program is apposite
If you see the guys robbing these school children of their lunch, you will find out that they are young, healthy and they have muscle that can be applied to productive ventures like agriculture and artisanship.The main reason that they – and many young people in our society – are involved in antisocial behavior is the fact that over the years, our moral compass as a people has eroded
These young people are cognisant of the fact that most of the wealthy people they see everyday, did not work for their wealth but acquired their wealth by pen-robbery: stealing public and private funds. So in their minds, if it is okay politicians, bankers and businessmen to take what does not belong to them, it is okay for them to do so too
After all, their are many other countries in the world – like India – where the extremely poor people are happy to work hard for what they eat as opposed to waiting for the Government to import bags of rice for them
That’s laziness of the highest order, Nigeria is beyond that, our level of deterioration can’t level us to that, Nigerians are ambitious and courageous people
@sani this is your north that are saints. Stealing foods from minors going to school can only be perpetrated by the northerners.
We will review and take appropriate action.