Saint Anakor, Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State on Security and Utility (Capital City), has said security personnel in the state are not exempted from the restriction on commercial motorcyclists from operating beyond 7pm.
Anakor, who spoke on behalf of his principal, said this on Saturday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abakaliki, adding that no segment of society was exempted from the restriction.
He said: “Anyone who visits the state police headquarters will see motorcycles belonging to security operatives impounded by the combined team of the state neighbourhood watch and the police.
“The law is no respecter of persons even though some people always prove stubborn by disobeying the law.”
Anakor said at a meeting with the Commissioner of Police in November 2019, they agreed to steadily enforce the ban on motorcyclists operating beyond 7pm in the capital city.
The governor’s aide said the enforcement team had solicited the assistance of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps to support the full enforcement of the ban.
He said: “We have intensified roadblocks at strategic locations of Abakaliki to ensure that any motorcyclist operating beyond the approved time will be arrested and the motorcycle impounded.
“It is clear that miscellaneous crimes such as handbag and phone snatching are perpetrated by miscreants at night and mostly with motorcycles.
“We shall arrest both private and commercial motorcyclists and impound their motorcycles because it difficult to differentiate criminals from the innocent ones.
“Abakaliki ranks among the safest cities in the country and we seek to maintain this rating, although there is no totally safe city in the world.”
Anakor said the security team in the capital city would complement the efforts of security agencies to sustain the state governor’s huge investments in the security.
He said: “My office’s campaign in churches and secondary schools against cultism and related crimes was borne out of our passion for the job.
“We discovered that most people do not listen to local news, but foreign news through various cable networks.
“This makes them unaware of efforts we are making to secure lives and property as well as encourage the citizenry to develop security consciousness.”
NAN.
