Educate law enforcement agents on how to deal with essential service providers — Nasarawa Residents

Some residents of Nasarawa State say there is the need for law enforcement officers to follow laid down rules of engagement while attending to essential service providers during the ongoing lockdown across the country.

The residents told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Nasarawa that some security agents sent to man the checkpoints at the boundary between Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory refused to allow citizens on essential duties to pass.

NAN reports that Nasarawa State shares border with the FCT, and has a large population of workers in the FCT living there because of its proximity.

Mrs Kelechi Ejike, a medical personnel who resides in Mararaba, a suburb of Nasarawa told NAN that she was stopped from going to her place of work.
According to her, the security agents refused to let her go through even after she showed them her Identity Card.

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“One of the scurity personnel vehemently refused to let me pass, I pleaded with him that was I supposed to be on duty and had patients to attend to, but even at that he refused to let me pass.

“Instead he said he was following orders that nobody should be allowed passage no matter the reason.
“So I suggest that these security officers should be well instructed on what they are called to do.
“Government cannot on one hand say essential service providers should go to work and their agents on the other hand truncate the effort through sheer ignorance.

“The problem I see is that some of these agents are not well educated and even find it hard to understand what is written on identity cards they are shown,” Ejike said.

She, therefore, called on government to find a way of giving it’s agents quick courses on how to separate ordinary citizens that just want to disobey orders from those going out to provide one essential service or the other.

Another, Mr Efiong Nsikan, a pharmacist said he was also prevented from opening his pharmacy store.

“They even threatened to beat me up when I tried to explain to them that my shop is a medicine store.

“Security agents should not just be sent to stop people, they should be well informed on the category of people that could be allowed to carry on with their duties.

“As much as they are carrying out orders, they also must not fall short of obeying orders.
“Government cannot say medical personnel, food sellers, journalists and some other professionals can go to work, and the same agents that are supposed to ensure compliance are now the ones hindering the process,” he added.
Some other residents frowned at the way some officers were brutalising citizens and humiliating others by flogging them or ordering them to lie in filthy gutters.
They said officers should be enlightened on how to deal with people in a civil manner, and not humiliate fellow citizens in the name of enforcing laws.
Although NAN tried to get the reaction of some the security agents on the issue, they refused to comment.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had directed that a 14-day lockdown should be observed in Lagos State, Federal Capital Territory and Ogun State which shares a common boundary with Lagos; to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lockdown which started at 11 p.m. on March 30 is expected to end on April 13.