As the Delta State Government extends the lockdown order to another 14 days to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of lockdown defaulters have been arraigned and sentenced.
A total of 716 suspected defaulters have been arraigned, 399 sentenced and 209 discharged since the mobile court kicked off in Delta State.
This is even as the mobile court sitting at Ozoro Magisterial District has sentenced 86 defaulters for contravening the Stay-at-Home Order by the state government.
The mobile courts were inaugurated across the three senatorial districts by the State Chief Judge, Justice Marshal Umukoro on the 7th of April, 2020 to prosecute offenders who violate the order restricting movement of people within and out of the State as a measure to curtail the spread of the virus in the State.
The 86 convicts who were arrested by the police from Ozoro, Abbi, Otor-Owhe, Kwale and Oleh communities were among the total number of 93 defaulters arraigned under the Delta State Infectious Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020.
The offence is punishable under Section 5 of the Quarantine Act Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, punishable under Section 203 of the Criminal Code Law, CAP C21, Laws of Delta State of Nigeria, 2006.
Mr. Humphrey Oghoghomeh, Principal State Counsel, Ministry of Justice, Ozoro Zone told the court that the suspects were found walking about and traveling without a pass, and were not engaging in essential services that fell under the exemption list thereby flouting the Stay-at-Home order of the State Governor.
Pleading guilty to the one count charge, the defendants who were not represented by any legal practitioner pleaded for leniency, explaining that they went out to buy foodstuffs or finding their daily bread following the extension of the lockdown order for another two weeks.
While they claimed to have exhausted their savings, a couple said that they were traveling from Asaba to Ughelli to join their children as a result of the extension.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Happy Enakpoya, held that the conduct and action of the defendants disclosed total disregard to the government’s Stay-at-Home Order made pursuant to Section 203 of the criminal Code Laws of Delta State.
