Two buses loaded with Almajiri intercepted in Bayelsa

By Ebi Perekeme

Bayelsa State government at the weekend intercepted two buses conveying 17 teenagers believed to be almajiris to the state.

It was gathered that they were made up of young boys of various origins from the northern states of the country.

Mr Freston Akpor, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Orientation, said the two vehicles were intercepted on Sunday at the Glory Land entry point into Yenagoa on the East-West Road.

According to him, the state’s COVID-19 task force officials led by Mr Agberebi Akpoebi, who is Governor Douye Diri’s Technical Assistant on Security Matters, with some security operatives enforcing the government’s “no entry order” at the toll gate, stopped the buses from entering the state.

Akpor, who is also a member of the task force, said the buses were promptly ordered to turn back and return the almajiris to wherever they had brought them from.

He said, “While some of the almajiris claimed they were on their way to the state on commercial fishing expedition, others claimed to be on the way to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, enroute Bayelsa waters.”

Akpor said the 17 boys, including their drivers, were escorted to Patani, the border town between Delta and Bayelsa states.