Reps probe bribery by security operatives enforcing travel ban

The house of representatives has resolved to probe bribery by security operatives enforcing the ban on interstate travel.

At Thursday’s plenary session, the lower legislative chamber also said it would set up a special task force to monitor and implement the interstate lockdown.

TheCable had reported how security operatives collect bribe from travellers and drivers to compromise the ban on travel from one state to another.

Only essential workers are exempted in the ban announced by President Muhammadu Buhari to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

But TheCable discovered that with as little as N16,500, you can be allowed to travel from Lagos to Abuja, passing through at least four states.

Considering a motion sponsored by Ndudi Elumelu and nine others, the federal lawmakers said it is troubling that people still violate the ban and worse, with the aid of security operatives.

They said the state governments have on various occasions intercepted “trailer loads of people moving in the middle of night and sneaking into other states this period, whereas there are supposed to be security agents at states’ borders implementing the presidential lockdown orders.”

The house described the complicity by security operatives as well as the violation as a “complete drawback” to the efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said unless the violation is immediately curtailed, Nigeria risks an increase in the number of coronavirus cases “that can put the country in a precarious state.”