The police will on Monday, May 4th, 2020, arraign sixty five (65) party goers for violating COVID-19 lockdown order in the state to curb the spread of the disease.

The Lagos State Police Command’s Spokesperson, Bala Elkana, made this disclosure to our correspondent on Friday, May 1st, 2020.

The Lagos State Task Force on COVID-19 had on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020 apprehended the suspects who gathered at 84 Parks and Gardens in the Abule-Egba area of the state for a birthday bash.

The task force, consisting of officials of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Lagos State Safety Commission, Rapid Response Squad and the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), went to the venue to arrest the violators following a tip-off from some members of the public.

The suspects were subsequently handed over to the police for profiling, while the venue for the party was sealed off.

Elkana said the suspects were still undergoing interrogation.

He said they would have been arraigned on Friday but for the public holiday occasioned by the Workers’ Day.

We are still investigating. They will soon be in court. They would have been in court today (Friday) but because it’s a public holiday, the courts did not sit. Definitely, it has to be on Monday,

Elkana said.

The party goers were said to have violated the state government’s lockdown directive and that of President Muhammadu Buhari, who on March 30 ordered an initial 14-day lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and, Ogun states. Several other states had introduced similar restrictions to curb the COVID-19 spread.

However, Buhari had extended the lockdown for two weeks and later announced that there would be a phased and gradual easing of the lockdown effective Monday, May 4th, 2020.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.