Ikeji Festival: Arondizuogu youths defy lockdown order, chase policemen with masquerade •Abia flays extra judicial killings April 17...
Ikeji Festival: Arondizuogu youths defy lockdown order, chase policemen with masquerade
•Abia flays extra judicial killings
April 17, 2020 | EASTERN PILOT
The Okigwe division of the Imo State Police Command, yesterday, accused youths from Arondizuogu community of defying the stay-at-home order to celebrate the Ikeji cultural festival and that a set of policemen.
Division Police Officer (DPO) for Okigwe, Chijioke Nwokoma, who disclosed this at a press conference in Owerri said elders of the community have disowned the decision to hold the festival because of the ban on social gathering as well as religious and cultural activities by the state government.
Nwokoma said the youths had rebuffed the order by elders of the community not to hold the annual festival. He said when police got to the scene of the festival, it met a large turnout of people and masquerades and that after several entreaties to disperse peacefully failed, the police had to retreat.
Nwokoma said the youths with their masquerades, took advantage of the police retreating from the scene and chased them back to their station.
“No arrest was made, no life was lost, nobody was hurt. We didn’t want to be provoked to a level where there could be loss of lives. If you see the crowd you can imagine what could have happened if police did not retreat,” Nwokoma said.
Imo Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Orlando Ikeokwu, who confirmed the incident also denied any riot by the crowd.
However, Abia Government has condemned what it described as acts of extra-judicial killing by security agents in the state.
A personnel of Abia command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) whose name was given as Richard on Wednesday shot and killed a commercial vehicle driver, Amobi Igwe, at Umuikaa junction, near Aba.
This came barely one week after a police Inspector shot and killed a petrol attendant after his bullet missed a motorist who allegedly failed to comply with the lockdown directives.
In a statement, the commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi-Kalu, said the state government roundly condemned the extra-judicial killings.
Ex-deputy senate president, Ekweremadu too
Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has condemned the reported extrajudicial killings in several parts of the country by security agencies enforcing the lockdown order.
Ekweremadu, who is also a member of the seven-man International Parliamentary Taskforce on COVID-19, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies to stem the needless killings immediately.
“I am deeply saddened by report from the National Human Rights Commission of the loss of 18 Nigerian lives in the hands of security agents enforcing the lockdown ordered by the Federal Government and various state governments.
“This is most unfortunate and condemnable, especially when we consider that the number of Coronavirus fatalities in the country, stand at 12, as at today.
“I call on President Muhammadu Buhari and the relevant security and government agencies to ensure that the reprehensible acts are thoroughly investigated and the culprits brought to book. We must ensure that law enforcement agents do not turn their weapons against the very citizens they are supposed to protect.
Police man do you want to tell me that you people were given order to kill anyone that violet the order of sit at home and that's why you people have been killing innocent people more than the virus itself?
ReplyDeleteLaxius is apparently just a sorcerer-in-training, not a full pledged magic-wielding individual. If he loses his powers, they may never return to Magic Kingdom, Lockdown the dimension where they came from. The Royal Lockdown gives us the glimpse into their past and present lives.
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