Following massive violation of restriction on interstate travels directed by the President as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, the House of Representatives said it will launch a probe into the matter.
In a resolution approved by the House of Representatives yesterday, following a motion titled, “Need for the effective enforcement of the Inter-state lockdown by security agents” sponsored by the Minority Leader , Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and nine others, the legislators also resolved that a special task force be set up to monitor and implement the interstate lockdown.
Debating the motion, Honorable Elumelu demanded the House to mandate its relevant committees to interface with the police and the Nigeria security and civil defense corps to investigate every alleged complicity and design better ways of curbing these lapses , since there are disturbing reports and video messages to the contrary, that people still travel across the length and breadth of the country in spite of the restrictions on interstate movement declared by the president to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic
He explained that the phenomenon has become intractable to the extent that persons are concealed in essential food and goods delivery vehicles and transported to other states in the country while restrictions on interstate is supposedly on-going.
On many occasions, the minority leader admitted that states government have intercepted trailer loads of people moving in the middle of night and sneaking into other states in this lockdown period, whereas there are supposed to be security agents at states borders implementing the presidential lockdown orders .
This development he argued was worrisome and a total draw back to the containment efforts of various governments as the COVID-19 bites harder and continue to devastate the world.
More troubling he confessed was the complicity of security agents who ought to enforce the presidential order on the interstate lockdown, warning that, If the anomalies are not quickly checked by probing the continuous interstate movement and subsequently creating a special task force to enforce it, COVID-19 cases will increase to an alarming high, that can put the country in a precarious state.
