SIBU, March 22: A woman driving her family to Miri from Sri Aman was asked to turn back at a roadblock at Lanang Bridge here following the Movement Control Order (MCO).
Sibu district police chief, ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit, said the woman, in her 40s and working with the Miri City Council, was asked to turn back because she has violated the restriction order by also ferrying her husband and four children in the same car.
The distance between Sri Aman and Sibu is about 230km by road.
In fact, two motorists in separate cars were among those told to make a detour during the operation as both were ferrying children. Another person who violated the MCO was an auxiliary policeman in his 30s, who was travelling from Kabong to Bintulu.
“The roadblock manned by the police and military personnel was set up to discourage people from doing unnecessary travelling in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Their cars were not allowed to continue their journey because of the ruling that ‘only the head of the family’ could go out to attend serious matters,” he told reporters during the operation.
Stanley, who was in charge of the roadblock, asked both individuals on the reason for their travel.
The woman said she was reporting back for duty at the Miri City Council tomorrow (March 23), after working from home over the past few days.
The man, who had travelled about 10km from Kabong before he was flagged down at the roadblock, gave the same reason, where he was also reporting for duty.
Stanley advised both individuals to turn back and drop their children off before they can continue with their journey to Miri and Bintulu respectively.
“I have to instruct them to turn back because if they don’t do it now, police officers at the next roadblock will also ask them to turn back and this will cause them longer journey,” he said. — DayakDaily
