Nabs child traffickers
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, yesterday said commercial bus drivers and their conductors aid the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
Mr. Odumosu, who spoke to journalists yesterday at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, said that investigation carried out by the command revealed that for fear of arrest commercial bus drivers and their conductors have resorted to buying face masks which they in-turn share to passengers who are not wearing any. Odumosu said the drivers and their conductors would later collect the face masks from the passengers when they were alighting from the vehicles which they give to new passengers.
“We urge the leadership of the various unions to educate their members,” he said. “Anyone arrested in the act would not be spared. The driver would be prosecuted along with his conductor while the vehicle would be impounded.”
Odumosu who also gave a breakdown of the command’s achievements recorded during the lockdown period said the command succeeded in arresting 2,310 violators of lockdown order. He said that a total of 2,185 violators were charged to court and awarded various punishments. He said that the command also freed 125 suspects, who are mostly underage offenders.
Cp Odumosu sharing face masks to suspects.
He said: “Our enforcement teams impounded 2,092 vehicles, comprising 800 private vehicles and 1,292 commercial vehicles. We equally impounded 1,535 motorcycles and 369 tricycles. With the pronouncement of the gradual easing of the lockdown by the government with effect from Monday, May 4, the command adopted more effective measures and strategies to enforce the curfew imposed from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am daily as well as the ban on non-essential inter-states movements.
“Our teams were also deployed to ensure that Lagosians obey the guidelines regarding opening and closing time for businesses, workplaces, markets; the use of facemask in public places; the number of passengers per commercial vehicle, and maintaining social distancing principles.”
Odumosu who paraded over 200 suspects said that a 20-year-old girl, Miracle Kalu, allegedly got pregnant out of wedlock, sold her baby for N130, 000 and has been arrested alongside four accomplices.
According to the CP, Kalu who hails from Ohafia in Abia State said that her health condition and lack of funds to take care of herself and the baby forced her to sell the 28-day-old baby to 40-year-old, Cecilia Okafor.
Kalu said that when she became pregnant, her lover denied being responsible, leaving her with nothing. The bubble burst when two suspects, Patrick Mbama, 41, and Ogechi Chinonso Ekwebele, 30, were arrested at Anthony area of Lagos while returning from Imo State, where they had traveled to smuggle the baby to Lagos.
Odumosu revealed that Mbama and Ekwebele had pretended to be a couple when they were arrested. He said the couple was intercepted in a Toyota Sienna SUV carrying seven passengers and the baby was crying, but the supposed mother hesitated to breastfeed the baby which raised other passengers’ suspicion.
