Governor Seyi Makinde and members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, on Thursday, disobeyed in public, the social distancing order in the country.
This, OYOINSIGHT.COM understands, came at a time the number of positive cases of coronavirus in the state is increasing.
In a public health advisory to Nigerians on the prevention of COVID-19 updated on the 10th of June, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, wrote that as part of efforts to phase and gradually ease the lockdown, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 had announced new measures for the second phase of the country’s response to the pandemic.
However, Makinde and the lawmakers, at the plenary to mark the first year anniversary of the legislators in the state, disregarded three of the new measures announced by the COVID-19 response team.
These three measures include: “Mandatory use of non-medical face mask/covering in public spaces, Physical distancing of 2 meters between people in workplaces and other public spaces, and Prohibition of the gathering of more than twenty (20) persons outside of a workplace.”
Group photographs from the event showed at least thirty-two people including the governor and some of the lawmakers standing together outside the house to pose for pictures with total disregard for the need to maintain “physical distancing of 2 meters” in workplaces and other public spaces.
Similarly, more than half of those who posed for the group photographs also disregarded the order of both the federal and state governments that failure to wear face masks in physical spaces is forbidden and those who fail to wear it should be arrested by security agencies.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Makinde would disregard, publicly, COVID-19 guidelines in the country.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls the unification rally of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on the 18th of March, 2020 attended by thousands of people against the advice by the NCDC that Nigerians should avoid mass gatherings.
The governor, who on the evening of the next day apologized for the organization of the rally, noted that the decision to organize it was based on “a lapse in judgment.”
Makinde, OYOINSIGHT.COM further recalls, would later test positive to COVID-19 on March 30th, 2020.
