Ogun State has on Friday extended the total lockdown imposed on the state as part of measures to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the state by one week.
Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, made the announcement, while briefing newsmen at his Oke Mosan office on the efforts of the government to flatten the curve of COVID-19 pandemic in the state, said the extension followed the feedback from a public opinion poll conducted by the state.
According to the governor said, “Interestingly, the feedback from you, the people of Ogun State, from the Public Opinion Poll hosted on Twitter, also support the extension of the lockdown. Out of about 6,000 respondents of the online poll, 53 percent support the continuation of the lockdown whilst 43 percent want a review with 4% undecided”.
“Ideally, compliance should be seen as a moral responsibility and civic duty. Let me state that we will not tolerate any form of sabotage in our approach and efforts at flattening the curve of COVID-19 in our dear Ogun State”.
“Consequently, in view of the evidence of community transmission and poor compliance with the lockdown measures, we are constrained to extend the lockdown for another week till Sunday 24th of May.
He stressed that, “We will continue to monitor the level of compliance with the lockdown measures and incidence of community transmission and hopefully, there will be positive developments that will enable us further ease the lockdown at the end of this new lockdown period”.
“We must also bear in mind that the daily curfew from 8pm to 6am and the ban on non-essential inter-State travel as directed by Mr. President still stands.”
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“We will not tolerate any act of smuggling of people, either indigenes or non-indigenes in to our dear Ogun State. Anybody found contravening this restriction will be immediately prosecuted”.
” Let me reassure you all that your government will continue to do what is right for the general good of all the people of our dear State. But I must also state that, at this time, survival is also a personal responsibility. We must join hands to flatten the curved of COVID-19 in our dear Ogun State. As we continue to help ourselves, we must also help one another and help our Government”.
“The spike in the number of positive cases, particularly in the last one week, is attributable to two main factors. First is the expanded testing capacity, currently at 450 per day, that has enabled us to embark on aggressive testing, especially in the communities with possible high prevalence of infection such as our border communities”.
“The testing has presented us with the stark reality that community transmission is on the increase in our rural and urban communities in Ogun State.”
Abiodun emphasised that, “We will keep expanding our testing capacity by deploying more personnel and testing centres to every nook and cranny of the State”.
“In spite of several warnings and the concerted efforts of our security agencies, a number of our people have continued to flout the measures in place to flatten the curve of the spread”.
He lamented that, “Some residents still come out in the public without the use of facemasks or use the facemasks in a manner that do not shield their mouths and noses; motorcycles and tricycles riders still carry more than the approved number of passengers of one and two respectively; and drivers of taxi cab and passenger buses are also culpable in this flagrant violations of the extant guidelines”.
“Our markets have also not fully compiled with physical distancing and other measures to ensure the markets do not become the COVID-19 transmission centres”.
“Between 4th May and yesterday, 108 violators of the lockdown and other measures have been apprehended and prosecuted. They were promptly tried by the newly introduced mobile courts, with some of them made to pay fine whilst some are undergoing community service. In the same vein, 517 vehicles, 109 motorcycles and 6 tricycles were impounded for breaching the Presidential directive on curfew within the same period”, he said
” Security agencies also intercepted migrants from other states, who defied the ban on interstate travels, and promptly turned them back at our borders with other states”.
“We thank the security agencies and the judiciary for the patriotic duties of apprehending and bringing to justice the violators whose activities are capable of undermining our collective wellbeing”.
” We have reinforced the intelligence apparatus in the various non-indigenous settlements and markets especially at Ogere and Kara markets along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; Olomore pepper market at Abeokuta; Eleweran Onion and other markets in our major towns of Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Sagamu, Ilaro and Ota”, the governor said.
The governor assured that, “Whilst we battle the pandemic, we also continue to focus on our agriculture sector, as food security occupies a prime position in the overall wellbeing of the citizens and the society”.