By Gbadamosi Oladimeji
Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has declared a 10-day curfew in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Mr Obaseki made this known at a press briefing in Benin on Sunday.
According to the governor, the lockdown would be partial to ensure that the economy isn’t exposed.
“Our approach to impose a partial lockdown was to ensure that we do not totally shutdown the economy and expose the people to the hardships and fatal incidents that have been witnessed in other States that opted for a total lockdown” he said.
“We realise we need to do more social distancing at this time. Therefore, we are taking additional measures to ensure that people stay at home. Consequently, with effect from tomorrow 20th April an order prohibiting movement of people in Edo state.”
The governor, however, disclosed that the curfew is temporal and would be reviewed after 10 days.
“The order will be reviewed after 10 days when the state have increased her screening and testing of the citizens, also security agencies, by this directive, are mandated to enforce total compliance by ensuring that movement is restricted at night across the State”.
Obaseki further noted that: “We’ll continue to impose a partial lockdown for now and not totally shutdown the economy because of the untold economic hardships which a total shutdown will cause to our citizens. We will review our decisions based on evidence obtained from our mass screening and testing.”
Edo is the sixth worst hit in Nigeria with 15 cases after Lagos (306), the Federal Capital Territory (81), Kano (37), Osun (20) and Oyo (16).
