- Detained in a crowded cell with 13 other people in violation of social distancing rule
- Car vandalised, laptop, power bank, clipper bag stolen
- Magistrate demanding N50,000 as precondition to release impounded vehicle
By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Lagos-based legal practitioner, Mr Gabriel Agwu, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty before the Special Offences (Mobile) Court holden in Oshodi Magisterial District over alleged violation of restriction of vehicular movements imposed by the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, under the Lagos State Infectious Diseases (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020.
Agwu was alleged to have committed the said offence by driving a Sienna car with registration number FKJ 54 EM on April 3, 2020 at about 9.30 pm around FESTAC Town, Lagos State, in violation of Regulation 7(1) of the Lagos State Infectious Diseases (Emergency Prevention) 2020.
The offence alleged to have been committed by the defendant is punishable under Part 111, Schedule 11, Item 61 of the Transport Sector Law of Lagos State 2018 and any other existing law, which stipulates a fine or imprisonment or both in accordance with extant laws.
Other alleged violators of the vehicular movements restriction order arraigned along with Mr. Agwu were Ganiu Ogedengbe, Lateef Shobanke and Friday Kutabulus.
These three defendants, however, pleaded guilty. They were convicted and ordered to pay fine of N50,000 each. Thereafter, they would go to Alausa Ikeja to claim their impounded vehicles.
Agwu, whose Sienna car was also impounded, pleaded not guilty and July 16 was fixed for his trial. Besides, he will not claim his car until trial is concluded.
But Agwu said he couldn’t have pleaded guilty because he committed no crime.
Narrating his ordeal to TheNiche, Agwu, who insisted that his arrest, detention and arraignment were unjustified, said that on April 30, 2020 which was a Thursday at about 9:00 hours, when it became clear that he had his familiar malaria symptoms, he spoke to his family doctor who asked him to go and buy an antimalarial drug from the pharmacy.
Agwu said he drove out shortly after to the Apple Junction axis of Amuwo Odofin area which was less than a kilometre from his house to get the prescribed medication from a pharmacy store by the junction.
“Having bought the medicine, I drove about 100 metres further to do a U-turn by the junction and head back to my house. Immediately I turned by the roundabout, I was stopped by some police officers and asked where I was coming from. I told them I just got a drug from a pharmacy and heading back home. They demanded to know why it was at that hour and I explained that my symptoms just became unbearable and I spoke to my doctor.
“The officer I was explaining to asked me what I do for a living and I told him I am a legal practitioner. He simply beckoned on another uniformed officer who was weilding a rifle to enter my car and take me to the station.
“I obeyed them and drove with the officer to their police station which eventually was the Area ‘E’ Police Command in Festac.
“Immediately we parked in front of the station, the Area Commander jumped off a patrol van and instructed that I should be detained forthwith until the following morning.
“I was eventually detained as he instructed without any statement taken from me or any form of official documentation made in respect of the detention order. They immediately confiscated my phone and all pleas for me to at least inform my wife that I was being detained at the said station fell on deaf ears.”
Agwu said he pleaded endlessly with one Seargent Shuaibu Enoch who was on duty to at least allow him communicate with his family to let them know his whereabouts, but it was futile.
“I was physically shoved into the cell where I was eventually detained overnight in the company of 13 other persons who were purportedly also arrested for allegedly violating the lockdown.
“It is noteworthy that as at the time of this arrest, there was no curfew in place in Lagos.”
The lawyer told our Correspondent that he was arrested alone in his car and detained in one room cell at the Area ‘E’ Police Command of Lagos State Police Command (Festac) where he slept with other detainees literally lying on each other.
“I began to wonder between me and our arrestors who actually violated the social distancing rule of COVID-19.
“Before I was detained, I was denied the right to remove my valuables from my car which was eventually taken to the Task Force premises at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa.
“The following morning, we were conveyed to the CID Department at Panti Street, Yaba, Lagos. The mobile court didn’t sit on that day which was May 1, 2020 (May Day). Although I was fortunate to get administrative bail therefrom, about 70 other persons arrested from various points in Lagos were shoved into one ‘Black Maria’ Van (so much for social distancing) and taken to the Lagos State Task Force office at Oshodi where they spent three nights and were eventually arraigned on Monday, May 4, 2020.
Agwu said that he held his peace until after he read the executive order of the State Governor to the effect that all vehicles impounded in connection with alleged violation of the lockdown order should be released free of charge.
He said that upon getting to Alausa the next day, he discovered that his vehicle had been vandalised and all the valuables therein which they refused him to take out had been removed.
“I still held my peace until this morning when they began arraigning alleged violators of COVID-19 at the Task Force office at Oshodi. The sitting magistrate to our greatest dismay was ordering the payment of N50,000 as a precondition for the release of any vehicle impounded for allegedly violating the Covid-19 executive order(s).”
Apparently worried by the high level of high-handedness, inhumane treatment and extortion, the victims cried out and decided that it was high time they told Nigerians what the Lagos State Government was doing to it’s residents in the name of COVID-19 lockdown enforcement.
Agwu who claims that his valuables like laptop, power bank, clipper bag, etc., were removed from his car, vowed to challenge his arrest and detention in court of law.