PHOTO: Some of the Kakata residents picked up by the Police
By Moses M. Tokpah, mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
KAKATA, Liberia- The National Police in Kakata City, Margibi County have arrested twenty persons, both males and females, for allegedly violating the Liberia government’s Stay home order declared by President George Weah many weeks ago, in order to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
The area is situated 73 miles east of Monrovia.
The Stay Home Order under the State of Emergency was recently relaxed and the 3Pm deadline to leave the streets was extended to 6Pm GMT.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police in the County, Sylvester Hina informed Journalists on Thursday, June 5, 2020 that every Liberian, old or young, is aware of the mandate given by the Government of Liberia yet then still they are violating the presidential order.
“We have been on this thing since April starting and it was 1500hrs in the beginning now it had being extended to 1800hrs but we still find people loitering after the hours,” the local Police Commander said.
According to him, they have called in local partners who carried out vigorous awareness but people are still not adhering to the 6pm stay home order.
Commander Hina stated that for the past two days at about 5:30pm, they have been using the megaphone reminding the citizens to leave the street but to no avail.
But on Thursday night, the police used a different strategy and were able to arrest the twenty persons including fifteen males and five females who are currently in police custody, said the police official in Kakata.
The Margibi Police Commander explained that those arrested will be charged for loitering under section 7.1 of the panel code law of Liberia and sent to Court. He recounts that the police will continue with the enforcement of the government’s mandate until their bosses tell them to scale down.
“So we want to urge everybody leave the street after 1800hrs, if you are caught you will be arrested; charged and sent to Court,” he warned.
Commander Hina attributed the refusal of some Liberians to adhere to the state home order to what he termed as the syndrome of denial like it was during the Ebola crisis until the was an increase in the death toll.
He revealed that lots of people are no longer using the nose masks and places where hand washing buckets were, they are no longer being seen in the various places.
The Margibi County Police boss, who noted that the virus is still in Liberia and can be seen on the international wire every day, encouraged everyone to leave the street, as being mandated by the government of Liberia and also continue the usage of the nose mask.
So far, Journalists have not been able to get word from those being held in custody.