COVID-19: Police in Niger warn transporters against night trips
The Niger state Police Command has warned members of the organised transport sector in the state and beyond against embarking on night trips.
Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Adamu Usman, which gave the advice in Minna on Friday, said that the warning was occasioned by the lockdown order.
“Any person or group of people found violating the lockdown order by making night journeys will be arrested and prosecuted under the state covid-19 order,” he said.
He said that the command had already reached out to the leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and other public transporters to impress on their members to desist from night trips.
Usman said that the breach of the existing restriction order by resorting to night travels was a development that had proven to be counter-productive as it had undermined the tireless efforts of the state government at curbing the spread of COVID-19.
The police commissioner said that intelligence reports indicate that transport workers, especially inter-state operators, had continued to defy the lockdown order by embarking on night trips.
He said that already area commanders and divisional police officers in the state had been directed to ensure full implementation of the lockdown order, especially, as it related to night trips with regards to categories of exempted persons.
”The lock down is for 24 hours daily except for window periods. Night hours are not excluded, inter/intra state movements across the state remain banned,” Usman said.
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He called on the residents of the state to continue to cooperate with the police and other security agencies deployed to enforce the lockdown order to curtail the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
”We will sustain our ongoing aggressive patrols across all the major highways to ensure strict compliance with the lockdown order,” the police chief added.
