Lockdown: Kaduna sets up mobile courts to try offenders

To ensure full compliance with the lockdown to curb the spread of Coronavirus, the Kaduna State Government has set up mobile courts to summarily try curfew violators, so as to preserve public safety, Solicitor General of the state, Chris Umar, has said.

In a letter to the Chief Registrar of Kaduna State High Court, dated   April 22, Umar said the decision was taken by the State Executive Council to enforce the executive order.

The Deputy Governor, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, while imposing a lockdown throughout the state on March 26, had invoked the 1999 Constitution, Sections 2 and 8 of the Quarantine Act of 1926 and Kaduna State Public Health Law of 1917.

Violations of the restriction of movement order, social distancing and the gathering of large crowds have been reported across the state, prompting government’s threat to sanction traditional leaders of communities where such violations take place.

The deputy governor also threatened to revert to the 24-hour lockdown by closing the two-day weekly window of Tuesdays and Wednesdays that allows residents to re-stock foodstuffs.

Umar stated that the mobile courts would “deal with violators summarily without the need for the present cumbersome procedure of taking offenders to court over such violations,” adding that the state Ministry of Justice had already assigned Magistrates that would preside over the courts.

He disclosed that the Magistrates would be sitting at various locations across the state, starting with Kakuri, Kawo, Magajin Gari, Rigasa, Sabon-Tasha, Maraban Rido and Rigachikun.