Scores of workers on essential duties in the Federal Capital Territory FCT were on Tuesday night held by soldiers manning a check-point at the Karu Market on the Old Karu Road, on the grounds of breaching the presidential curfew.
The soldiers were said to have mounted the roadblock hours before the 8 pm curfew time, forcing motorists to move at snail speed. Those who were not lucky to have passed the checkpoint before 8 pm were consequently held, hostage. However, those who were on foot were allowed passage even after the curfew.
Among those affected are journalists, health workers and paramilitary personnel. As of 11 pm, they were still being held and told to either sleep in their cars or leave their cars and trek to their various homes.
One of those affected, a journalist, Kayode Fadare said the soldiers refused all entreaties to allow them to pass.
He said; “I got to this checkpoint before 7:20 pm. Ordinarily, I should have passed in less than five minutes but the soldiers shut most lanes on the road and left only one lane for motorists. I couldn’t even get to where they were standing before 8 pm and so, they decided to hold all of us here.
There are health workers and others here. I, along with a radio journalist tried to approach the soldiers and explain to them but they told us that they have not been told that essential workers have any exemption. I told them about the guidelines set out by the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19 but they asked us to leave them alone. We had to leave them when they were becoming unnecessarily agitated”.
One of the health workers Rhoda Emmanuel said there was no way she would abandon her car on the road and trek home.
“My house is not a working distance from here. The road is dangerous too. How am I supposed to leave my car here and walk home?”, she queried.
When contacted, Director, Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation OSGF, Willie Bassey, expressed shock at the development.
He said the attention of the SGF, Boss Mustapha who is also the Chairman of the PTF had earlier been drawn to the issue and appropriate reminders were issued to the agencies, promising to update him of the latest development.
Stop harassing Journalists, PTF tells Security Operatives
The PTF has consistently asked security operatives to respect the exemptions as set out in its protocols, ordering them to stop harassing journalists and other essential duty workers as they belong to the class of those exempted from the curfew imposed on the country.
“On whether Journalists and vendors are not considered as essential services, I believe that they are because whatever we do here, if you do not report it, then the news item will not get out there; adverts we carried on newspapers, radio and televisions that are supposed to enhance and equip our people with knowledge and information so that they can make informed decisions would not go out there.
So, I believe that anything related to the Press is considered as essential services for the purpose of allowing you free passage. We will look at the issue that happened in Lagos because if we expect the networks to remain in operation throughout the night, then when it comes to movement, our security agencies should be adaptive enough to know that these people are coming from their places of work and grant them access to get home”, the SGF had declared at a briefing last week.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed specifically lamented the reported harassment of journalists in Lagos, saying he would take up the matter with the Police Command.
He said; “On the issue of journalists being prevented from doing their work in Lagos, I will take up the issue with the Commissioner of Police in Lagos because my understanding and which has worked so far, is that anybody with a valid identification as a journalist is allowed to move about unmolested”.
Also speaking on the issue, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19, Dr Sani Aliyu expressed shock at the development.
“In terms of clarification of the curfew, yes, journalists are exempted but I am surprised that you (journalists) are having issues, but we will release a specific clarification and we will be meeting with our security agencies by Friday and we will make it very clear to them that people on essential duties are exempted from the curfew”,
