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COVID-19: Police officers in Lagos raises the alarm over overcrowding of formation with lockdown violators

COVID-19: Police officers in Lagos raises the alarm over overcrowding of formation with lockdown violators
COVID-19: Police officers in Lagos raises the alarm over overcrowding of formation with lockdown violators

Police officers attached to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Panti-Yaba, Lagos, have expressed the alarm over the rate at which violators of the lockdown order are being dumped in their formation.

The development, they said breaches the social distancing order and would also lead to the spread of the deadly virus.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 24, made a directive that Lagos and the Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, be totally lockdown in order to curtail the spread of Corona Virus Disease codenamed COVID-19.

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Some of the officers of the department who spoke on the conditions of anonymity said the rate at which violators of lockdown order were being dumped at the formation needed to be checked, apart from spreading the deadly disease, it also exposed them to danger.

It was gathered that the violators who are currently over 400, were arrested at all police formations in the state and kept at the department pending when they would be prosecuted before a mobile court.

One of the police officers at the formation said: “We have these people (referring to lockdown violators) being brought here every day from all police divisions and Area Commands in the State.

“Few of them, especially, those that have names are being prosecuted before a mobile or magistrate court, while others are being left to be loitering and mingling among themselves here.

“My brother, where is social distancing? Why can’t these people be tried at the stations where they were arrested? Please, help us to let the government know about this development so that they can know what we are facing here”.

Another officer who also didn’t want his name in print said: “My brother, this is a sad situation. These people were brought here for violating stay; at -home order of the President, but see them as they are clustering among themselves. How are we sure that one of them that have contacted the virus or not.

“We the officers here are not free from the disease, as far as these people are here, because there is no way we wouldn’t come in contact with them. This is a sad situation.

“If the government is not ready to prosecute them, they should release them instead of dumping them here. The government needs to do something to salvage the situation”.

However, Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO)DSP Bala Elkana, said no lockdown violators were allowed to spend 24 hours in the formation.
He said there was no cause for alarm, saying that the trial of violators was done within 24 hours of their arrest.

” Some of the people you saw are not violators of lockdown order, some of them are murder or armed robbery suspects brought to the formation for further investigation. There is proper arrangement for the prosecution of lockdown violators in order not overcrowd the formation, it is either they are taking to court or prosecuted at the Mobile Court sitting in the formation within 24 hours”, he said.

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