Recession? Thief steals woman's cooking pot of rice in Ebonyi

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Is this how poverty has affected some people in this country?
Agnes, a resident of Abakaliki, on sunday, lost the pot of rice she was cooking for her family to thieves.


A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
correspondent who visited Agnes’s residence behind Nnodo Secondary
School, Amike-Aba on Monday
reports that she was still in shock
over the incident.

It took repeated appeals by the
correspondent to make Agnes talk,
as she maintained that her husband
had barred her from speaking
further on the issue to avoid
negative attention to the family.She said:

“I came back from a village-meeting late on Sunday and put the rice on fire so that my family could have their dinner and eat the remnant on
Monday morning.
“This apartment, as you can see, has no kitchen so we cook in the space in front of the house, likewise other
occupants of the building,”.

Agnes said that as she went inside
her room to fetch some condiments,
she was delayed by the attention she had to give to her crying child.

“I gave attention to my child who was crying and by the time I came out to continue cooking, the pot of rice had vanished, with the stove still enkindled.
“After I recovered from the shock, I started screaming which attracted my husband, family members and
neighbours who were all as
stupefied.
“When it was established that no occupant of the building took the pot, it dawned on us that the act was perpetrated by a thief who exploited the vulnerability of the
improvised kitchen,” she said.

The woman declined further
comments but her neigbour, Justin
Mbam-Egbe, noted that the situation
had re-awakened security
consciousness among the occupants of the house.

A private security consultant in
Abakaliki, Dr John Odikwa, blamed
such incident on the current
economic recession in the country.

“The country has degenerated to a level that people now steal pots of rice and soup and with the
yuletide approaching, the society should be ready for serious security challenges.
“The Federal Government should take immediate measures to
alleviate the sufferings of the
people to prevent total breakdown of law and order,” he said.