By Gbadamosi Oladimeji
Anyone who moves about in Ogun State without a face mask beginning from 1st of May would be arrested and treated as a saboteur, Governor Dapo Abiodun has said.
Governor Abiodun made this known while addressing newsmen at his Iperu residence, stressing that violators of the order would be treated as saboteurs who want to deliberately infect the residents of the state with the virus.
He warned that defaulters will spend 14 days in any of the State’s Isolation Centres and be made to perform compulsory community service in the state.
“Infact, when we arrest you, we will take you to an isolation centre because we believe that you want to intentionally inflict or afflict someone with Covid-19, that is why you are not wearing your facemask,” he said.
“So, we will isolate you for 14 days, and also make you do community service. Therefore in your best interest, ensure that you wear your facemask when you are going out”, he added.
Speaking on the readiness of the state, Abiodun stated that his government has procured about two million facemasks to be freely distributed to most essential workers, adding that other residents should buy for themselves if they must go out.
“We are working against the spread of this Covid-19. As from May 1st, it will be compulsory for everybody in the State to wear face masks. We deliberately delayed enforcing it so that our people can have enough time to get their own. After May 1st, anyone who fails to wear a face mask will be viewed as deliberately planning to infect others and will be arrested and put in our isolation centres”.
The compulsory wearing of face mask was agreed by the Governors to begin across their states on April 24.
While speaking on the new development of protective measures, he said that the health workers in the state have started using Nigeria’s pioneer protective glass box which was installed at the Ogun State Walk-in and Drive-through Testing Centre at Ijamido town hall, opposite Ansar-u-Deen Comprehensive College in Ota.
He added that the venue has been inspected by officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Prince Abiodun also appreciated the frontline medical personnel for a job well done, saying that the Government would review their allowances and other working conditions to make them more effective.
“As we move into the next phase of our relief package distribution, we will distribute face masks alongside food items to 80,000 vulnerable households”, he said.
He, however, assured that the second phase of food distribution to the poor, vulnerable and elderly, would commence soon, as lessons learnt in the first phase would come in handy.
Meanwhile, Governor Abiodun has congratulated all Muslims on the Holy Month of Ramadan and prayed Almighty Allah (SWT) considers the coincidence of a global pandemic and the start of the Holy Month and accepts their fast and prayers.
He called on Muslims to use the Ramadan period to pray for solutions to the pandemic, saying that it was the responsibility of all to work against the community spread of the disease.
