A Nigerian man has been shot dead for allegedly flouting a stay-at-home order aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, police and a lawmaker said on Friday.

Nigeria has introduced a raft of measures, including lockdowns of major cities, to try to contain the virus, which has infected 184 people, two of them fatally.

Joseph Pessu, a resident of the oil city of Warri in the southern state of Delta, was killed on Thursday by a soldier deployed to enforce the lockdown, the sources said.

“The incident occurred yesterday with the youths protesting,” state police spokesperson Onome Onowakpoyeya told AFP.

Angry young people lit fires in the streets but police later restored calm, he said.

In a statement late on Thursday, the lawmaker representing the area condemned the incident and called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted.

“Those who are authorised to bear arms in defence of the nation ought to understand that this comes with responsibility, especially when human life is sacrosant,” said Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

“The killing in Warri… is one too many, as the issue shouldn’t have led to what in my opinion amounted to extrajudicial killing.”

He said he had heard that the army had arrested the soldier who shot Pessu. He called for a thorough investigations and punishment for whoever was responsible.

Meanwhile, the state journalists’ association said some reporters were harassed as they covered the impacts of the coronavirus on the people in the state.

“The journalists were attacked by overzealous members of the task force while monitoring the level of compliance with the stay-at-home directive,” it said.

“This is barbaric, wicked, primitive and ludicrous.”

By Dr Mercy Alu

I am a mother, HR consultant, author, Goodwill Ambassador with Globcal (a partner with UN on SDG's in Africa), coordinator with International Association of African Authors/Scholars, a songwriter/recording artist, researcher, and social anthropologist of sorts! I believe we should all live our best lives, and enjoy helping organizations and individuals perform better. I and my guest authors love to share information about the world around us; African events & Entertainment, plus lots of good information about Health, Wellness, Family, Book Publishing, Business, Relationships, Culture, Folk Stories, and much more. I speak several languages including French and Igbo (a West African Language). I enjoy research, writing, reading, singing and finding out lots of things about, well, lots of things! Knowledge is power. So information and knowledge gained from experiences, observation, all flavor the things I write about in the exciting blog portion of this website. Feel free to drop me a line or two, I also want to hear from you!

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