The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Ekiti Command, has intercepted a bus that sneaked into Ekiti with some traders.
The traders were alleged to have come from Sokoto State under false pretenses that they were traders from Ilorin to sell onions.
Mr Solomon Iyamu, the State Commandant of NSCDC, made this known in a statement signed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Tolulope Afolabi in Ado Ekiti on Thursday.
Iyamu said the suspects were arrested at Afao-Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area (LGA) of Ekiti, having traveled through bush paths and abandoned roads from Ilorin, Kwara to Ado Ekiti at night.
“Luck ran out of the suspects when the Intelligence Unit of the command traced them from Igbemo-Ekiti to Afao Ekiti, all in Irepodun/Ifelodun LGA where the commuter bus was about to disembark the passengers,’’ Iyamu said.
The NSCDC boss said the driver of the commercial bus was able to escape on sighting armed squad personnel of the command.
“The suspects were rounded up and detained at the Headquarters of the Command in Ado Ekiti,’’ he said.
He, however, frowned at the rate at which people move into Ekiti from other states through the bush paths and dangerous routes in spite of the boundary closure.
Iyamu noted that preliminary investigation showed that the suspects were from Sokoto State while few of them had been staying in Ilorin before moving to Ekiti.
According to him, all the persons have been handed over to the Ekiti Government for necessary action.
The commandant also appealed to the people of the state to learn how to stay safe from the spread of Coronavirus.
He said the NSCDC Ekiti Command was battle-ready to arrest and prosecute anyone found in the state illegally, especially at this period of lockdown.
