Police warns pastors, imams against resuming service in Ogun

Officials of the Ogun State Police Command have received an intelligence report that some religious leaders are planning to reopen places of worship in defiance to the state government directives.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday. The police warning came on the heels of the state government’s suspension of its plan to reopen the religious centres due to the rising cases of COVID-19.

The state governor, Dapo Abiodun, had at a press briefing on Friday lamented that he was forced to suspend the planned reopening of the worship centres following the situation of COVID-19 in the state.

Oyeyemi said, “In view of this, the command wishes to appeal to those who have such intention to have a rethink in their own interests because such an action will be viewed as deliberately making an attempt to cause a widespread of the virus in the state.

“As a responsible organisation constitutionally mandated to maintain peace and order, the police will not fold its hands while some people will be openly flouting the law of the land.”

Speaking on the readiness to stop any religious centre that flouts the government order, Oyeyemi said officers had been directed to be on surveillance patrol to arrest any recalcitrant religious leader.

He said, “Therefore, all the Area Commanders, DPOs as well as the command’s tactical squads have been directed to be on surveillance patrol across the state with the view to bringing to justice anybody found disobeying the government’s directives.

“The fight against COVID-19 should be seen as a collective responsibility of everybody and we should all join hands with government to defeat the virus once and for all.”