COVID-19: Adegboruwa appeals to Buhari to lift lockdown Lagos, Abuja

Lagos based legal practitioner and rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), on Thursday, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to lift the lockdown of Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, and allow the governor and minister of the affected areas to determine the scope of measures to be taken in preventing further spread, adding that Abuja being the capital of Nigeria and Lagos being the commercial nerve centre, cannot remain under lockdown beyond one week.

Adegboruwa who made this known in a statement further commended the president for the love demonstrated for the well-being of the people and urged him to end the lockdown from Friday, April 3, 2020.

According to him, since the president directed the lockdown of Lagos, Ogun States and Abuja on March 29, 2020, everything became paralysed from March 30, 2020, as movements of persons were restricted, except those on essential services. He added that “the concomitant effect of this has been very catastrophic indeed, especially for daily wage earners.

“No doubt the President meant and acted well, though a bit late, but it is not in doubt that the action of the President was the best in the circumstances of our present realities, even though it had no legal backing.

“Having now reviewed the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic as it affects Nigeria, it is clear that Lagos State has saved the nation of this calamity through its proactive measures, which have now been adopted by most other States. In this regard, I commend Governor Babajide Sanwoolu and in particular Prof Akin Abayomi, the Commissioner for Health, for their gallant efforts towards arresting the spread of the pandemic,” Adegboruwa said.

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He explained further that since the President announced the lockdown, there have been different interpretations and implementations, leading to abuses by security agents.

“The economic hardship being faced by the people is horrendous and the so-called cash distribution has no real value to the people. As Lagos State has now declared 100 per cent recovery rate, and it is the most affected State, there is need to review the lockdown, to ease the burden of the people,” he said.

He concluded that the measures already put in place by Governor Sanwo-Olu before the lockdown was effective enough to combat the spread and they should be retained, but without the restriction of movement, adding that banks and markets should open and people should be allowed to move around, to eke out a living for themselves.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE