SaharaReporters reliably gathered from an affected worker that thieves have in recent times been sneaking into the camp to also steal food items and other valuables meant for the welfare of persons within the facility.
Thieves have ransacked the De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Camp in Mallam Sidi under Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State, going away with mobile phones, clothes and cash belonging to aid workers and security personnel at the place.
SaharaReporters reliably gathered from an affected worker that thieves have in recent times been sneaking into the camp to also steal food items and other valuables meant for the welfare of persons within the facility.
Despite the fortified nature of the camp, criminal elements have found a way to breach security at the place to carry out their nefarious activities.
The coordinator of the camp, which is under Operation Safe Corridor, General Maina, has been unable to arrest the situation despite the apprehension and unease the development is currently causing among occupants, SaharaReporters gathered.
"Recently, more than three mobile phones and other valuables belonging to workers at the camp were stolen by thieves.
"Apart from that, food items and other things meant to cater to the welfare of over 200 workers from different government agencies including the military have been stolen from the camp with no trace of such anywhere.
"Nobody including the camp coordinator has answers to how thieves sneak in and out of this place to operate without being apprehended.
"At the moment, everyone is afraid in the camp because we don't know what may happen next," an affected worker said on Tuesday during an interview with SaharaReporters.
Another worker at the Gombe camp revealed that the activities of thieves have made many people around the place seek ways of leaving the area.
"It is a really disturbing situation, thieves have been making life difficult for us here and the authorities don't know how to tackle the situation.
"In fact, workers especially those of us yet to be paid our allowances for two months, have been working on getting posting elsewhere. We can't continue like this because it is dangerous," the worker said.
This is not the first time thieves would invade a fortified government facility in Nigeria as there has been a number of such occurrences.
For instance, on May 9, 2021, thieves broke into the house of the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, inside the Presidential Villa in Abuja, carting away important documents, cash and valuables in the process.
The incident temporarily forced Gambari to abandon his residence for a while.
In June 2021, criminal elements invaded the military barracks of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, carting away a herd of cattle in the process.