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.
According to
TheNiche,[1]
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.
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.
According to
TheNiche,[1]
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.