COVID-19: We’ve not lifted ban on movement restrictions ― Lagos govt

The Lagos State government has refuted rumours making the rounds that it had lifted the ban on movement restrictions in the state, stating that such directive could only be at the Federal Government’s discretion.

Refuting the claim at the COVID-19 Inter-Ministerial briefing held in Lagos, on Thursday, the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotosho, argued that the state did not possess such powers to relax the restrictions since they were imposed at the instance of the Federal Government.

He appealed to residents of the state to continue to obey the advisories of the state government and other health organisations, by staying at home, adhering to the social distance rules and cultivating the culture of frequent hand-washing.

“I want to use this opportunity to tell residents that the directive on total lockdown of the state, is still on. It has not been rescinded by the state government. The state government does not have such powers; since it is the Federal Government that pronounced the lockdown in the first place. So if the ban is going to be lifted, such an announcement would surely come from the state government,” he stated.

The commissioner also explained that the inter-ministerial briefing, which was at the instance of the state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was designed to update residents on the efforts of the various ministries of government in the fight against the spread of the disease.

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“It is meant to assure Lagosians that despite the threat posed by the pandemic, the people, saddled with the task of running the affairs of the state, have not stopped working.

“Besides reassuring Lagosians that the state is on top of this situation, it is also an opportunity to let the public know of the state government’s programmes, now and after we must have seen the back of the pandemic,” he added.

Giving an update on the activities of his ministry, the Health Commissioner, Professor Akin Abayomi, assured residents that the state was on course, in the fight against the spread of the disease.

According to him, the state had started preparing for such pandemic, about five years, when it started upgrading its medical facilities and honing the skills of its medical personnel, especially in the area of infectious disease treatments.

“Since five years ago, we knew an incident such as this would happen,. The only thing is that we didn’t know when. The Ebola incident, then, taught us some lessons, since it revealed our areas of strength and those areas that needed to be strengthened.

“That was why we had already instituted the Incident Command Structure, concerning the pandemic, even before the first case was recorded in Lagos,” he added.

He assured residents of the state government’s commitment to ensuring that the spread of the virus is curtailed, and normal activities restored in no time.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE