Worried by the flagrant disregard to the total ban on inter-state travel on citizens by the Federal and state governments to curtail the further spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, has ordered the immediate deployment of special forces to monitor the enforcement of the orders.
According to findings in Abuja on Saturday, the Special Forces include, the personnel of the X-Squad and the IGP – Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters, Abuja
It was gathered that the mandate of the special forces is to ensure proper enforcement of the orders to the latter in line with the laws of the land and devoid of abuse of the rights of the citizens.
Findings revealed that the IGP took the action following series of complaints by the state governors, who were pointing accusing fingers at the Police personnel, accusing them of compromising the enforcement of the orders by allowing free passage of unauthorised persons at the various checkpoints across the country.
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Scores of passengers have been intercepted across the states of the Federation and Abuja for violating the interstate travel ban while in some cases, corpses were impounded from people trying to smuggle them to different destinations for burial
Recall that only two weeks ago, a state governor personally intercepted a convoy of about 50 vehicles conveying a corpse from Lagos State to Kogi State for burial and wondered how many Police checkpoints the convoy must have passed through before being accosted.
When contacted on the position of the Police High Command on the accusation of compromise being levelled against its personnel on the enforcement of the interstate travel ban, the Force Public Relations Officer(FPRO), Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP explained that the enforcement of the orders depended on many variables.
According to him, “it is very complex but as we speak, our Special Forces comprising the Police X-Squad and the IGP Monitoring Unit are outside there monitoring the enforcement of the orders by our personnel”.
He said anybody caught for comprising the enforcement as directed by the President or state governors will be arrested and will face international disciplinary action
“Nigeria Police Force is a disciplined organisation, most those things you read in the Media about the Police compromising the enforcement of the interstate travel ban are false, in everything we do, we normally put measures in place to check their system for proper implementations.
“I can assure the members of the Public that no personnel of the Police caught compromising the enforcement of the Presidential directive will go unpunished.”
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