Ali-Agan, Haroon above the law?
“All social gatherings are banned forthwith and that churches and mosques remain closed.
“…sanctions await anyone caught contravening the rules,” a March 25 press statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Deputy Governor, Kayode Alabi reads in part.
The Kwara State Government had imposed a partial lockdown from 6 am on Friday, 26th March 2020 as part of partial lockdown to curb the community transmission of the novel coronavirus.
According to statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, as of Saturday, 29th March, there are close to a 100 cases of the virus in Nigeria.
However, a former Grand Khadi of Kwara State Shariah Court, Justice Idris Abdullahi Haroon (Rtd) on Friday hosted his daughter’s wedding ceremony in Ilorin in defiance of the state government’s directive proscribing all social gatherings in the state.
The same day, Abubakar Ali-Agan, a close ally of the current state governor, who’s also one of stakeholders invited for the fight against spread of COVID-19 in the state, held Jumu’at session in his mosque.
Ali-Agan, whose Jumm’at mosque is located in his Oloje estate’s secondary school in Ilorin held a ‘physical’ service on Friday.
Ali-Agan was reported to have said that “nobody can order the shut down of mosque”.
He was also reported to have applauded the congregation for having faith by believing that the COVID-19 cannot spread in mosques and coming out en-mass to pray, saying “people die everyday either by coronavirus or other ways”.
Nevertheless, in what appeared to be a selective enforcement of the lockdown directive, the Kwara Police Command accompanied by the Kwara State COVID-19 technical committee have been proactive in dispersing gatherings of the less “powerful” people in the state.
The Kwara State commissioner for police, Kayode Egbetokun in a statement yesterday even directed his men to “seize motorcycles of commercial operators and ask them to walk home” while in real sense look the other side once the law affect the “mighty”.
The million naira question remains, is the state government shielding Ali-Agan because untouchable? Is Justice Haroon above the law? Is the lockdown order only for the downtrodden? What is stoping the arrest of Ali-Agan and Haroon?
