Soldiers Storm Asokwa Over Food Distribution

THE UNTHINKABLE happened on Monday as hundreds of people rushed to the streets in search of food at Asokwa, in Kumasi.

The place is among the selected communities placed under restricted movement by government to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Residents of Asokwa, who had complied with the lockdown order, however, breached the order, possibly, due to hunger on Monday.

Government officials had stormed the place to distribute free food to the people, especially the vulnerable, but things got out of hands.

Before the distribution exercise could start, scores of people, who claimed to be very hungry, besieged and mobbed the place.

Surprisingly, the people refused plead to form a single queue to ensure smooth distribution exercise in the main street, leading to Kumasi Mall.

The distributors did whatever they could so that the people would form a queue but to no avail. The crowd blocked the main road in the process.

Realising that the social distancing order by health professionals were not being adhered to, soldiers were called to disperse the crowd.

Unconfirmed reports have it that the distributors are now planning to present the food to the people in their homes to ensure orderliness.

Certainly, the behaviour of the crowd could lead to the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, which is killing people.

The high turnout of the crowd is also an indication that the lockdown order is having an adverse effect on most of the people, notably the vulnerable.

Some communities in the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions are now in their third-week of a partial lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 virus.