How Police Is Frustrating Delivery of COVID-19 Palliatives, Supplies

BY CAMI EZENWA

It appears Nigerian security men expected to help ensure that COVID-19 food and other essential supplies meant for Nigerians reach them, are now the ones frustrating it..

They have resorted to extorting legitimately certified transporters conveying such foods and creating other bottlenecks on the highway..

Those mentioned include men of the Nigeria police, the military and other security outfits.

Especially in the early days of the lockdown, and in areas where public transportation is restricted in the Lagos and Ogun areas, some smart uniformed officers had been sighted, operating covet transportation services

But in the latest, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is saying the action of the men has become a huge obstacle in the planned free delivery of foods and other essentials.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Nasir Sani Garzo said the federal government’s resolve to alleviate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerians within the lock-down period may not be realised.

He spoke in Abuja while receiving a brief from the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), according to a statement, adding that the challenge had already been reported at the appropriate quarters.

“It is very unfortunate that despite the intervention, extortion by the police and that of the military and other security still persist.”

“This is a great blow to the noble directive of the President for a free-flow and unhindered movement of Essential Commodity across the country, but we will not stop until the situation is addressed,” he said.

The Eagle checks also showed that the EOC had so far received a total of fifty-five cases across the country, fifty-four of which have been resolved at the level of the Committee.

Sixty-eight percent of these interventions are logistics-related, and about twenty percent are market Intelligence issues where supply and demand were pair to keep the production afloat while other requests had to do with direct manufacturing operations and some requests were retail-related.