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Ben Dunno, Warri
The national vice president of Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Comrade Kehinde Taiga, has blamed the first index case of Coronavirus disease recorded in Delta State on the corruption and indiscipline of the police team deployed to guard the state borders, especially between Edo and Delta during this lockdown period.
Reacting to the report of the first Delta index case which went viral, Taiga, noted that findings revealed that the index case gained entrance into the state due to porous borders occasioned by alleged extortions by policemen who collect money from motorists and commercial vehicles on inter-state movement at this period of lockdown to gain access.
He noted that if the index case gained entrance into the state through the borders when the lockdown was being observed nationwide, then it was a further reaffirmation of the already established fact that the Nigeria Police cannot be entrusted with the task of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry.
According to him, “this shameful act of extortions by the police in Delta State which had gone out of control in recent times has further being exposed at our borders at this critical period when we are all paying the price of being lockdown at home so as to stay safe from further spread of the virus in the state”.
“We are mostly saddened by this ugly development to endanger the lives of our people as a result of the negligence and corrupt tendencies of the policemen under the Delta state police command which had gotten to its climax in last four (4) months or thereafter and all our complaints have fallen to deaf ears”.
“We are however not surprised by this unpatriotic act of the police as this is a clear reflection of what we have being observing at the various police stations in the state where police engaged in all sorts of corrupt practices including illegal arrest and detention, extortions on the roads and indiscriminate bail charges”.
“We (CDHR) have brougt the attention of the Delta State police commissioner, Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, to some of these abuses of human rights by his men at the various police stations across the state even with well established cases of extortions but it appears the lawlessness increases by the day rather than being checked”.
“Consequent upon this latest ugly development of the first index case of Covid 19 in the state, we are calling on the Delta State government to initiate a probe into the activities of policemen deployed to man our borders, inorder to identify those on duty the very day the index person gained access to the state”.
It would be recalled that Delta state recorded its first index case of the Coronavirus on Tuesday evening, as a Warri resident who had been sick was rushed to one of the best hospitals in the city where he was diagnosed of the virus.
He was immediately rushed to the Delta State Teaching Hospital at Oghara where he is currently being treated.
