Akwa Ibom Government Arrests 1000 persons for violation of Lockdown
By Grace Udoh
Over 1,000 persons have been apprehended across Akwa Ibom State for alleged violation of the stay-at-home order in the state in the past six days, an official has said.
The Commissioner for Justice, Akwa Ibom State, Uwemedimo Nwoko, disclosed this on Monday in an interview.
Akwa Ibom, like most other states in Nigeria, has been under lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Akwa Ibom has nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of April 19.
“It is the number of people apprehended from the various police divisions across the state since April 14,” Mr Nwoko said. “They are going to be taken before a magistrate court.”
Mr Nwoko said the court that would try the offenders are not mobile courts as erroneously thought by some people. “It is the magistrate court that has just been activated and directed to sit by the state chief judge, one per senatorial district in the state,” he said.
Mr Nwoko said for pedestrians who are first time offenders, the maximum sentence is a N10,000 fine or a community service for seven days, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The fine would increase to N20,000 and the community service, 14 days, if an offender is caught again violating the order, he said.
“For bicycles, motorcycles, tricycles, and mini-buses, they would have to pay a N20,000 fine or do community service for seven days, in addition to having their vehicle (being) impounded, if it is the first instance. For buses and all types of car, the penalty is a N50,000 fine for a first time offender. And for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles, the fine is N100,000.”
The commissioner recounted a scene he encountered on Monday in Uyo where a truck driver who said he came all the way from Ogun State was apprehended by security officials enforcing the lockdown.
“I asked him, ‘How did you get here? How did you get through the borders across all the states?’ He brought out a paper and said it was a pass. I asked him if it was (President) Buhari that signed it because it should be only Buhari that can sign a pass that could take you across all the states’ boundaries in Nigeria.
“He said it was given to him by the Ogun State government, I told him that was not enough.”
Mr Nwoko, however, said he advised the law enforcement officers to proceed and take a statement from the truck driver.
“The major challenge we are facing is trying to balance the interest of enforcement and the social interest of our people. We want as much as possible to reduce the pain this enforcement would bring on the people. We want to try as much as possible to balance it so that the people would know that this is in their interest.
“We are not happy to do this, but we must do this because of the interest of the people.”