FCTA arrests Islamic cleric, 2 foreigners for violating lockdown order
.Impounds 269 vehicles
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Sunday, arrested a popular Islamic cleric, Imam Abubakar, in the Wuye district for violating the presidential lockdown order in the FCT aimed at curtailing further spread of the coronavirus in Abuja.
Disclosing this to journalists during media chat in Abuja, the Chairman of the FCTA Enforcement Team, Comrade Ikharo Attah, also revealed that his men have impounded more than 269 vehicles for violating the presidential stay-at-home order in the nation’s capital.
“Earliy this (Sunday) 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.
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“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 him to be released and he 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.”
The journalist-turned enforcemrnt expert also 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 this important and lifesaving order.
Recall, that in the first week of the lockdown, a pastor, U.U Uden, was equally invited to the FCT Police Command for violating the directive, where he was cautioned and released.
