The Delta State Police Command on Sunday arrested three clerics in Warri for conducting Easter service despite the subsisting lockdown order of the state government that asked citizens to stay at home as part of the measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the state.
Similarly members of the churches were arrested.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the state command, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, confirmed the report in a telephone chat with journalists.
The PPRO gave the names of the churches whose priests were arrested as St. James Anglican Church, All Saints Anglican Church and Christ the World Mission.
The police spokesperson quoted the DPO, A Division as arresting one while the Area Commander in Warri also arrested another one.
The third priest, she said, was arrested by policemen in “B” Division.
The Warri Area Commander of the Nigeria Police, ACP Mohmmaed Garba confirmed the report saying, “Definitely, it is correct”.
“We have arrested three persons or four of them. They’re inside cell. In one of the churches, they had almost 100 people. You can imagine. So, we are going to charge them to Court tomorrow (Monday),” he stated.
Speaking in the same vein, the Divisional Police Officer, “B” Division in Warri, CSP Andrew Inidebor, confirmed the arrest of the parish priest of St. James Anglican Church in Warri.
Inidebor, in a telephone chat, said he led the team that arrested the priest and some of his members.
He said, “Right now, I am not in a place where I can talk but the position is true and I have handed him over to the Area Commander. I led the men there and the community leaders were the ones calling that the man was operating church. So, I just went there, picked him up to the Area Commander.”
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