Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja
A popular Islamic cleric (name withheld) was on Sunday arrested in Wuye district for violating the presidential lockdown order in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) aimed at curtailing further spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Abuja.
Chairman of the FCTA enforcement team, Comrade Ikharo Attah, who disclosed this while briefing reporters on the development, added that his men also arrested two foreigners and impounded more than 269 vehicles for violating the presidential stay-at-home order in the nation’s capital.
Attah explained: “Early this morning, we commenced operation following so many calls from residents that the Christ Embassy Church in Durumi was preaching, we went there and discovered that that wasn’t true but the pastor was inside the church with some cameramen and some production crew.
“We found out that they were doing their stream online but the generating set was on.
“That was the noise they heard that they concluded that it was a church service.
“We then proceeded to other areas around town. We got to Area 1 Roundabout, where a particular man was arrested with four military caps -he put one Army cap in his boot, then another one for Nigeria Airforce, as well as two other ones for Nigeria Navy, all in one vehicle. We took and handed him over to the FCT Commissioner of Police.
“Then we also had another case of a man whose vehicle was taken to VIO office in Area 1, and immediately he decided to strip himself naked, removed all this cloths in protest that he must work, that he did not believe in existence of coronavirus.
“We then moved to the mosque at Wuye district, because we had gotten several complaints that the man (Imam) had worship on Friday.
“But that Friday, we were at Kuje so we could not have come back within five minutes.
“So we got there today and invited him to come and explain; and we cautioned him at the FCT Police Command, Garki.
“We will like be released and must have been further cautioned and released”, Ikharo explained.
On why his team arrested a Turkish and an Angolan during the exercise, he said: “We arrested two expatriates at Glo Junction for violating the President’s order, going out without permit.
“One of them is from Turkey, while the other is from Angola. They were taken to the Maitama Police Division.”
Attah revealed that his men impounded more than 269 vehicles from violators of the lockdown directive, even as he warned the residents, particularly uniformed personnel and diplomats against breaking the presidential lockdown order.
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