Ogun directs taskforce to lock down shops, markets not enforcing COVID-19 guidelines

The Ogun State government has directed the taskforce in the state to lock down shops and markets where COVID-19 guidelines are flagrantly disobeyed.

The Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Public Communications, Hon. Remmy Hazzan who spoke with Tribune Online on Tuesday said that the state COVID-19 taskforce headed by the deputy governor, Engineer Noimot Salako-Oyedele has also intensified efforts to ensure compliance to the guidelines is enhanced.

The development is coming on the heels of a report by Saturday Tribune which chronicled the defiance to the use of facemasks, social distancing and regular handwashing across Ogun State markets.

Hazzan noted that the observations raised in the report directed the attention of the government to areas that need more attention, adding that any shop owner who defaults will have his/her shop locked down.

Hazzan: “We’ve never shied away from continuous advocacy and awareness just to make people understand the COVID-19 protocols to be obeyed in the public places including markets, banks, streets, public transport. We have never slowed down on this awareness. How much compliance has been done by the people can only be gotten when you return to those places to check if anything has changed.

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“We took that report as an observation that we shouldn’t toil with and shouldn’t sweep under the carpet and we stepped up. One of the things we did was to ensure that the various markets taskforce were empowered to do more.

“If any shop owner or customer is not wearing facemasks, the taskforce has been empowered to lock-up the shops. And if the non-compliance is market-wide, the markets are to be shut down. That is part of the empowerment that we gave the taskforce in various markets.

“I assure it has yielded more results. The onus is now on you to go back to those markets to check if anything has changed. I tell you with all honesty that it has yielded good results and we have done that to ensure that compliance is enhanced and improved and we will keep on doing that because it is a continuous process and not an event.

“There is a COVID-19 taskforce in the state and your report has been able to draw their attention to areas needing more surveillance. They have also stepped up their game. The deputy governor who heads the committee is doing a lot to ensure that compliance is enhanced.

“You well know that man has a knack for wanting to break rules especially with this mentality that COVID-19 is a hoax, but we have kept on telling them that COVID-19 is real.

“The more people get to understand that COVID-19 is real, the more the urge to comply with the protocol and etiquette will be enhanced. We will not shy away from doing what we have done hitherto and we will continue to do that.”

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