The special adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on security matters, Fatai Owoseni, has urged the people of the State to obey the orders of the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the State.
Owoseni, who is a former commissioner of police in Lagos State disclosed this while speaking on a special program on Fresh FM about the efforts of the State Government earlier today.
According to him, every citizen has an obligation but we have people who are non-conformist. In other climes, they are conformist, and there is 100 per cent obedience to advisories.”
“It is a big challenge for any Chief Executive especially in our clime, some of the measures are difficult to enforce in Nigeria especially in the southwest, in those other climes they are organized, they know where grocery stores are while we have markets built for multipurpose use so, in the process of separating those selling essential goods and things that are not essential, it will require a lot of discretion and that is why our people must understand that we live in a cluster community, our markets don’t have spaces that is why a person selling garri is not different from those selling other goods”
On the question of whether the government is going aggressive as from this evening to ensure the enforcement of the orders,” he said.
“ I don’t want to use the word aggressive, I will always advise that our people should obey and comply with laws, we are not animals, Do we need people to use horsewhip to beat people?
“We should be able to tell ourselves that the government has said don’t go out, we will stay indoors.”
He noted that it is important for the law enforcement agencies and the people to have mutual understanding so that when the Government wants to enforce a full lockdown of activities it will be easier.
He stressed further that the agencies charged with enforcing the orders – Police, Airforce, Operation Burst, Civil Defence, Road Safety, OYRTMA, NDLEA – have all been told to ensure that while enforcing the orders of the government the fundamental rights of people are protected. He added that though “in some cases, as we are in our society you probably need to use the hard way to get things done, we will get there.”
He then explained that all entry and exit position in Oyo State have been identified and security people have maintained their position there because there is a likelihood that there will be some issues in that aspect due to the presidential order yesterday that inward and outward movement into Lagos and Ogun state has been stopped which might make some people including criminals come and hibernate in the State because they know they can’t go out.”
