The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministerial Enforcement Task Team on COVID-19 Lockdown on Saturday arrested 27 persons that violated the ban on interstate travels in Zuba, Gwagwalada Area Council of the nation’s capital.
The 27 travellers were said to have been hidden in Dangote trucks, conveying bags of rice and onions from Zaria, in Kaduna.
Luck, however, ran out of them when men of the enforcement team insisted on seeing the content of the trucks.
They were arraigned at the Zuba Mobile Court, where the Presiding Magistrate, Ebiwari Damini, convicted the driver, Olalekan Wasiu, and other passengers for violating the ban on interstate travels imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari to contain the spread of Coronavirus.
Unlike previous sentences, the magistrate, who fined the driver N5,000, ruled that the Dangote company’s truck used to transport the violators be impounded until after the interstate travel restriction was lifted.
He also ruled that those caught should be guided out of the FCT to the place of departure.
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Speaking to newsmen after the judgment, chairman of the task force, Mr. Ikharo Attah, lauded the verdict, saying it would deter violators of the interstate travel ban.
He stated: “Now that the truck drivers know that whenever they are caught transporting people from one state to another, their trucks would not be released, they would stop such act.”
Attah appealed to Nigerians to be mindful of their health, decrying that “A situation in which people are hidden in-between bags of onions in trucks and covered with tarpaulin, as it is in this case, is not good for their health. Some even hid on the floor of trucks carrying cattle, which is also not hygienic.”
He also warned management of Dangote Company, owners of most of the trucks, to do whatever it could to ensure that their trucks, meant for haulage of goods, were not converted to the illegal transportation of persons from one state to another, thus violating the president’s lockdown directive.
While pleading for mercy, the truck driver, Olalekan Wasiu, admitted that after delivering items in Zaria, he was hired by someone to convey food items to Edo State, adding that he had to carry passengers to increase his profit.
In a related development, a mobile court sitting at Dei-Dei also convicted two bus drivers who were coming from Minna, Niger State, for violating the travel ban.
They were fined by the magistrate, who ruled that they should be returned to Niger State, where they came from.
