Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Hakeem Odumosu, yesterday said commercial bus drivers and their conductors are aiding the spread of COVID-19 in ths state.
Mr Odumosu, who made this shocking revelation at a press conference held yesterday at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, said that Investigation carried out by the command revealed that for fear of arrest commercial bus drivers and their conductors have resouted in buying face masks which they in-turn share to passengers who are not wearing any.
Odumosu disclosed that the drivers and their conductor would later collect the face masks from the passengers when they were alighting from the vehicles .
He said t by so doing drivers and their conductors aid the spread of Coronavirus pandemic.
“We urge the leadership of the various unions to educate their members. Anyone arrested in act would not be spared. The driver would be prosecuted along with his conductor while the vehicles would be impounded”,he said.
Odumosu who also gave a break down of the Command’s achievement recorded during the lockdown period said the Command succeeded in arresting 2,310 violators of lockdown order.
He said that out of the said number, a total of 2,185 violators were charged to court and at the end of the trial they were awarded various punishments.
He said that the Command also freed 125 suspects, who are mostly under age offenders.
“Our enforcement teams impounded 2,092 vehicles, comprising 800 private vehicles and 1,292 commercial vehicles. We equally impounded 1,535 motorcycles and 369 tricycles.
“With the pronouncement of the gradual easing of the lockdown by the government with effect from Monday, May ,4, the Command adopted more effective measures and strategies to enforce the curfew imposed from 8.00pm to 6.00am daily as well as the ban on non-essential inter-states movements. Our teams were also deployed to ensure that Lagosians obey the guidelines regarding opening and closing time for businesses, workplaces, markets; the use of facemask in public places; number of passengers per commercial vehicle and maintaining social distancing principles” he added.
Odumosu who paraded over 200 suspects ,said a 20-year-old girl, Miracle Kalu, who allegedly got pregnant out of wedlock, delivered and sold her baby for N130,000, has been arrested alongside four of her accomplices.
Kalu who hails from Ohafia in Abia State said her health condition and the lack of funds to take care of her health issue, and fend for the baby forced her into selling the 28-days-old baby to Cecilia Okafor, 40, after birth.
Narrating how her ordeal , Kalu who is based in Imo State, said after she got pregnant, her lover denied beeing responsible for the pregnancy, leaving her with nothing.
The bubble burst when two suspects, Patrick Mbama, 41, and Ogechi Chinonso Ekwebele, 30, were arrested at Anthony area of Lagos, while returning from Imo State, where they had travelled to smuggle the baby to Lagos.
Odumosu revealed Mbama and Ekwebele had pretended to be a couple when they were arrested.
Odumosu revealed that the said couple were intercepted in aToyota Sienna SUV carrying seven passengers.
He said the baby was crying in the vehicle and the supposed mother of the child, Ekwebele was advised to breast feed the baby.
Odumosu said the hesitation of Ekwebele to breastfeed her baby raised other passengers’ suspicion.