Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
No fewer than 70 vehicles and countless number of the occupants were on Tuesday grounded under a scourging sunshine at two military checkpoints along Musa Yar’Adua Express Road (Airpoint road) and Kuje road for defying the federal government directive on lockdown to check the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
Daily Sun correspondent, who monitored the level of compliance to the lockdown order in Abuja, can report that there was partial compliance in some outskirts of the FCT especially in Kuje and Gwagwalada Area Councils, as some markets dealing on items other than foodstuff were operational, just as there were vehicular and human movements.
However, the residents of the two Area Councils were not the only culprits to the order, as it was also business as usual for the herdsmen in the FCT that did not only crisscrossed the major expressway but conspicuously move round with their herders apparently oblivious of the gravity of the pandemic situation at hand.
At the military checkpoint off Gwagwalada, several vehicles that were denied entry into the city centre by the military personnel stretched up to half a kilometre with the visibly disappointed occupants abandoned under the scourging sunshine and intensive heat without any hope of when they will continue their journey.
The situation was the same at the checkpoint along Kuje road as the military personnel ensured that only those exempted from the presidential order due to their involvement in essential services were granted access in and out of Kuje.
In fact, danger was however averted when one of the military officers threw caution into the wind and manhandled an unarmed plain cloth Custom personnel for flouting an order given to him, hinging his action on the Custom staff getting on his nerves and lacking courtesy in his approach.
Speaking to our correspondent on why they applied such drastic measure to ensure compliance to the lockdown order, a military officer insisted that they have no regret subjecting the motorists to whatever untold hardship they saw themselves, emphasising that they are merely obeying the last command from the Commander-in-chief.
“Journalist, I know you would have captured everything happening here,” he told our correspondent, adding: “But we don’t care. We are merely obeying the presidential directive. But, I don’t know why Nigerians love iron hand all the time before obeying simple order and instruction.”
“As you can see, we are not applying any force or beating anybody here. We simply told them to park or alternatively go back to where they were coming from. Many Nigerians are yet to realise the devastating effects of Coronavirus and we want to prevent what happened in USA, Italy, Spain and other European countries from happening in Nigeria. It is a simple instruction but Nigerians will always want to be bullied before complying with the order.
“The few ones we gave corporal punishment were the ones that disobeyed the simple directive we gave to them. The Custom man wanted to prove stubborn too by doing something very nasty, forcing to slap him. What does he think he is?” he queried rhetorically.
Similarly, pleading with our correspondent to intervene, a staff of a beverage company, complained that he got involved in the logjam due to the misinformation from his office, emphasising: “I saw myself here because of the wrong information from my office which directed us to come to work since we are among the category exempted from the lockdown. I have spent over an hour 30 minutes here begging them but they are bulging at all.”
Although the major markets around Kuje Area Council were not busy as in normal times, traders, majorly dealing on foodstuffs, fruits and beverages in addition to few others that capitalised on the security agents’ lukewarm in monitoring compliance circumvented the lockdown order.
At both Kuje and Gwagwalada, residents were seen moving around freely, just as few motorcycle operators defied the order and commuted residents from one spot to the order without any form of harassment or challenge from law enforcers.
However, from the ever busy under bridge Trainer Park, which is usually the hob of activities in Gwagwalada to the bubbling Wazobia Park, which turned into a ghost town, there was some measure of compliance as trainers were not only parked abandoned at roadsides but there were also no buses ready to convey pockets of passengers at Wazobia Park traveling outside Abuja.