Barring the restriction on inter-state movement within the South-West in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, some passengers who were said to be travelling from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, arrived at Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Wednesday night.

The travellers were, however, reportedly intercepted by men of the Oyo State Police Command at the Ibadan end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The travellers were said to have resisted arrest and attempts by the security agents to hand them over to the state’s COVID-19 Task Force.

Rather than yielding to the directives, they pleaded that they should be allowed entrance into the city.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Olugbenga Fadeyi, said, “The people were coming from Abidjan and they were accosted. Efforts are in place to hand them over to the COVID-19 team in Oyo State for assessment.”

Fadeyi, however, could not give details on the number of the arrested persons, their sex, age, mission and where they were heading as of the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, the Aseyin of Iseyin in Oyo State, Oba Abdul-Ganiy Adekunle, has brought the historical traditional dimension to the battle against coronavirus by appeasing the deities in the land to ward off the virus from the state.

As part of the ritual, adherents of Oro, Elegbara and Egungun deities, led by the Owolewa masquerade, were at the palace.

The monarch said, “This appeasement is in consonance with historical activities of our forefathers, especially whenever there was an outbreak of an epidemic. The Owolewa masquerade had prayed for our land to be healed of the virus and very soon, it will become a thing of the past.”