The Chairman of Iwo local government, Hon Raji Kamoru has explained how he and the task force team enforcing inter-state movement restriction intercepted a vehicle carrying a suspected COVID-19 patient.
The council boss said after the stopped the vehicle, a man on board started coughing and died at the spot.
The vehicle, it was learnt, was stopped at Odo Oba, Iwo, an entry point to Osun from Oyo State while attempting to enter Osun State.
The car was said to have left Ibadan for an undisclosed destination, when it ran into a police checkpoint which stopped the vehicle and demanded explanation.
Kamoru told Punch correspondent that policemen and health personnel stationed at the checkpoint were not convinced with the explanation of the occupants of the vehicle, when they stopped them.
He said when the team at the checkpoint told the occupants of the vehicle that they could not proceed, one of the occupants said to be sick suddenly started coughing and he died.
“They stopped the vehicle coming from Ibadan. One of the passengers started coughing and he died.
“The security men asked them some questions and they could not give a satisfactory explanation about where they were going. Immediately we were informed, myself and the DPO had to turn them back.
“In the first instance, when we told them to return to where they were coming from, they hid in the bush. But we found them and escorted them to the boundary and handed them over to policemen at Iyana Offa, Oyo State. They did not tell us where they were coming from and their destination,” Kamoru said.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Osun Command, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed that police personnel intercepted a vehicle carrying a corpse around Odo Oba area, Iwo.
She said a Mazda 323 car with number plate KFS 409 EH, driven by one Ismaila Ademola, was heading towards Iwo from Ibadan, adding that the medical team at the checkpoint suspected the deceased passenger might be a COVID-19 patient.
Opalola said, “The security team led by Iwo Local Government chairman had to escort the vehicle back to Iyana Offa and handed them over to a police division in Oyo Command.”
She maintained that the state Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, had directed closer monitoring of boundary communities to ensure total compliance with the lockdown order by the state government. (PUNCH)
