A fake COVID-19 task force team was on Tuesday night arrested at Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area, near Onitsha while raping ladies they arrested for not wearing face masks in their bus.
An eyewitness who gave his name as Friday Nweke said the touts who posed as COVID-19 task force were violating the girls in the bus when a tricycle hit the bus, causing them to flee, abandoning the girls and the bus.
The touts were said to have been using a Mitsubishi bus with the registration number – Lagos CH675 LSR but abandoned it when some members of the public caught them trying to rape the ladies.
Nweke said, “They abandoned their bus in front of New Parts Market, Nkpor, when some residents intercepted them yesterday (Tuesday) around nine o’clock in the night.
“The members of the team were raping some girls they abducted for not wearing face mask inside the bus when a commercial tricyclist hit the bus and alerted some boys living within the axis.
“The criminals left the bus and ran away before the boys in the neighbourhood smashed the windscreen and punctured the tyres of the bus in anger.
Nweke also lamented the ugly activities of the fake COVID-19 task force and implored the government to ban the enforcement on the use of face masks in totality considering that it is now being used to perpetrate crime in the state.
Eyewitnesses said personal belongings of women including pants, bra, clothes, wrapped moi-moi, COVID-19 task force aprons were scattered in the bus.
The spokesperson for Anambra State Police Command, SP Haruna Mohammed confirmed that a bus was found abandoned and has been taken to the police station, while the investigation continues.
