Sanwoolu threatens to re-introduce lockdown in response to nonchalant attitude of Lagosians

GOVERNOR Babajide Sanwoolu has warned that he will re-impose a lockdown across Lagos State soon if members of the public keep exhibiting their nonchalant and irresponsible attitude towards the coronavirus pandemic by ignoring precautions.

Nigeria currently has 4,151 coronavirus cases of which there have been 128 deaths, with Lagos, Kano and Borno being the most affected states along with the Federal Capital Territory. Last Monday, the federal government lifted its total lockdown in the Federal capital Territory and Lagos and Ogun states partially but the public has refused to follow all the health guidelines associated with the lifting.

Across Lagos, very few people are observing the social distancing guidelines and less than a quarter of the population are wearing facemasks. As soon as the lockdown was lifted, huge queues grew outside banks with people getting into a melee as they sought to withdraw money.

It is no surprise that there has been a surge in the number of affected people in Nigeria, especially Lagos State, which accounts for about 40% of all cases in the country. Exasperated with the callous disregard shown by the public, Governor Sanwoolu has said he may be forced to lock down the state again.

Governor Sanwoolu said: “As a government elected to uphold the security of its citizens, which includes health security, we will not hesitate to review the terms of the easing of lockdown if we do not see an improvement in adherence to our public health guidelines in the next couple of days. We will be forced to take a painful decision of bringing the entire system under lockdown if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules.”