FEAR OF BOKO HARAM ATTACKS AS ALMAJIRIS TROOP DOWN SOUTH, WHILE SECURITY AGENCIES LOOK THE OTHER WAY
… As army of unemployed youths move down south
•Security agencies fail to implement Buhari’s ban on non essential inter state travels
• Day Senate raised alarm over breaches
Disappointment and anger were palpable in the Senate on Tuesday when the upper legislative chamber debated the motion on “The Need to Enforce Presidential Order Banning Interstate Travels”.
Mover of the motion, former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said, the Senate was: “Alarmed at the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, which currently stands at 4,641 cases and 150 deaths.
”Also alarmed that confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC is now in hundreds.
”Aware that the President, in his wisdom and relying on advisories by relevant authorities and powers conferred on him by Section 3 of the Quarantine Act, CAP Q2 Laws of the Federation 2004 issued the Proclamation Order on the General Management of COVID-19 banning non-essential inter-state passenger travels until further notice in order to contain the deadly novel Coronavirus.
”Also aware of the presidential order declaring dusk to dawn curfew all over the country.
”Seriously worried by the numerous reports and trending videos on the flagrant breach of the curfew and interstate travel.
“Aware that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has raised alarm over what it described as ‘Increased level of interstate movement, worsened by the dubious concealment of people in food-carrying vehicles’.
”Further aware that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum has equally raised serious concerns over the way Nigerians crisscross the country in their numbers despite the subsisting order to the contrary.
”Conscious of the very grave implications of the brazen breach of the presidential order restricting interstate movements.
”Equally conscious of the fact that the nation’s security agencies, particularly the police, have the responsibility to enforce law and order, including the presidential ban on interstate movement.
”And very worried about reports of alleged complicity in the said breaches by those who are supposed to enforce compliance with the directives of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces”.
Consequent upon this, the Senate unanimously condemned “in strongest terms the barefaced breach of the presidential order on interstate movements” and enjoined Nigerians to “strictly comply with these orders for their own safety and to quicken the nation’s victory over the COVID-19 pandemic”
The upper legislative chamber further resolved to: “Direct the Inspector-General of Police, Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and heads of all security agencies charged with enforcing the ban on interstate travel to investigate the alleged complicity of their officers in the breach of the curfew and ban non-essential interstate travels and bring to book anyone found wanting; and“Direct the Inspector-General of Police and the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to fully enforce presidential orders on curfew and ban on non-essential interstate travel as well as ensure that their various commands cooperate with respective State authorities in enforcing the presidential orders and other protocols aimed at rolling back the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Indeed, when President Muhammadu Buhari decided to relax the total lockdown in parts of the country, namely Abuja the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos State, and Ogun State, during his last national broadcast on the COVID-19 pandemic, he was not under any illusion that all was well with the country. Not when the cases of COVID-19 were on the upward trajectory. He only bowed to economic realities and the growing restiveness among the ordinary Nigerians, who depend on daily income for survival in the absence of a meaning social welfare or palliatives to keep them indoors. He confessed that the over one month lockdown had come at a “very heavy economic cost”.
Fully aware that the worst was yet to come, President Buhari applied caution by ordering nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew and ban on non-essential passenger travels on the premise that cessation of movement, physical distancing measures as well as prohibition of mass gatherings remained the most efficient and effective way of reducing the transmission of the virus. In so doing, he must have trusted that the retinue of security men on the Joint Security Services would help to religiously enforce his orders.
Unfortunately, as news reports and trending videos show, the security agencies, the security agents are clearly the nation’s weakest links in the war against COVID-19 as the presidential orders are enforced in breach, reducing the security posts to super markets and the interstate boundaries a porous pay-as-you go centres.
On Wednesday, the Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatunbosun, announced the interception of 70 travellers from different parts of the North towards the Takie area of Ogbomosho.
”Among them are Northerners from Katsina State. Others are from Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara states. About 50 of them said they were heading to Ibadan while the other 20 persons said they were heading to Lagos State”, Olutunbosun said.
On the same day, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) at Igbara Oke, headquarters of Ifedore LGA of Ondo State, intercepted 23 youths from the North. On interrogation, the youths, who said they were heading to Akure, however said they had no particular destination in the Ondo State capital. The Special Adviser to Governor Akeredolu on Transport, Tobi Ogunleye, ordered them back to where they were coming from.
In one of such many instances as it affects Lagos State, a truckload of people from Zamfara and Kano State, the epicenter of Coronavirus in the north, was intercepted at Ojodu-Berger.
Only last Saturday, the police in Kwara State said they intercepted of a “consignment” of 200 purported Almajiri children about to be off-loaded in the State. Kwara Police spokesman, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, said the driver claimed that “they were coming from Funtua in Katsina State, despite the inter-state travel ban”.
The story is the same from the South East to the South South, where there are scary influxes of people in truckloads. This is so worrisome that some of the governors are joining in the enforcement of interstate boundary lockdown. A whooping 150 passengers were intercepted on a single day on the Enugu-Benue and Enugu-Kogi borders on one of such drives during the monitoring and enforcement drive by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
In a state broadcast on Wednesday, a palpably angry Ugwuanyi lamented that all the 11 COIVD-19 cases recorded by Enugu were persons, who entered the state illegally from other parts of the country, despite the state’s shutdown of its boundaries since March. The first two, who have been treated and discharged, travelled from the United Kingdom and Dubai. The rest cases were from Kano, Plateau, and Bauchi. The last case from Kano returned to her Enugu residence on 4th May. Put another way, Enugu would still have been COVID-19 free if the federal and state’s directives on border shutdown were enforced.
Men of the Traffic and Indiscipline Management Agency of Abia State (TIMAAS) have equally announced the apprehension of 40 youths from the North at the Umudike Junction of Aba Road, Umuahia concealed in a Dangote truck.
The question on the lips of many then is: is it for truckloads of young, unemployed and possibly unemployable army of youth to travel from one far end of the country to another without detection despite the presence of all manner of checkpoints on our highways, ranging from Police to Army, Air Force, NSCDC, Customs, National Law Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), etc.? This is why all fingers point in the direction of the security agencies.
Besides redistributing the virus and making it almost impossible for the nation to win the war against the pandemic, there are also fears that Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and might be exploiting this laxity and perceived corruption to establish deadly cells in the southern parts of the country.
Already, conspiracy theories are flying around on these influxes, thus bringing to the fore, once more, the flaws in concentrating the headship of virtually all security and paramilitary agencies in the hands of one region in a multiethnic and multi-religious society.
In the face of the breaches, Nigerians agree with the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who concluded the Senate debate stressing: ”There is need for proper enforcement of the restrictions on interstate travels. Apparently, there is so much breach and interference. We need to seat up because this is a very serious challenge to our country. it is very important we do this because this is for ourselves and for our family members”.
But will the falcon hear the falconer? Will the security agencies turn a new leaf and also bring to book their erring officers as directed by the Senate? Will the citizens ever see the need to obey the presidential orders on COVID-19? Whereas only time would tell, one thing is certain: given the devastation visited on nations with advanced economy and healthcare system like Germany, USA, Italy, UK, etc., COVID-19 is one pandemic Nigeria with a comatose economy and a broken health system can only toy with at its collective peril.
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