Kaduna State Government has made its threat to shut down if citizens continued to defy government its directives intended to prevent Coronavirus in the State. It has imposed curfew throughout the state, following the non compliance to certain measures that were earlier put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.
\nThe Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe who made this known on Thursday, in the second state broadcast in two days, said that the decision is in line with the 1999 constitution.
\nAccording to her, the decision is \u2018\u2019in exercise of the powers vested in the Governor by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria1999, (as amended), Sections 2 and 8 of the Quarantine Act 1926 and the Kaduna State Public Health Law of 1917.\u2019\u2019
\nDr Balarabe said Kaduna State has therefore \u2018\u2019been declared a public health area, Coronavirus, otherwise known as Covid-19, is hereby declared as a dangerous, infectious disease within the meaning of the Quarantine Act.\u2019
\nThe Deputy Governor said that State Standing Committee on Covid-19 prevention met on Thursday to review global and national developments relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
\nAccording to her, \u2018\u2019the Committee also considered reports of unsatisfactory compliance levels with the preventive measures that have been outlined by the government in repeated announcements, and with increasing severity, over the past seven days.\u2019\u2019
\nDr Balarabe further said that apart from flouting the directive against large gatherings, \u2018\u2019there were also reports of certain persons not obeying the ban announced on motorcycle taxis and \u2018Keke-Napep \u2019tricycles.\u2019\u2019
\nDeputy Governor Balarabe warned that \u2018\u2019from midnight of Thursday, 26th March2020, all residents of Kaduna State must stay at home. No offices, businesses of any sort or places of worship are allowed to open.\u2019\u2019
\nThe Deputy Governor clarified that \u2018\u2019the only category of persons exempted are workers in essential services such as health workers, the fire service and security personnel.\u2019\u2019
\nDr Balarabe warned that the curfew will be strictly enforced by the security agencies, adding that \u2018\u2019they have clear directives for the immediate arrest and prosecution of any person that violates these measures. \u2018\u2019
\n\u2018\u2019Churches and mosques will be shut, there will no congregational prayers or services either within these places of worship or outdoors.
\n\u2018\u2019Wedding events and all social gatherings are strictly prohibited while these emergency measures remain in place,\u2019\u2019 the Deputy Governor further warned.
\nDr Balarabe said that \u2018\u2019any place of worship, event centre or place that hosts social gatherings will be in violation of its term of grant and therefore risks forfeiting its title and having the site of the offense removed. ”
\n\u2018\u2019We recognise that Kaduna State is a transport hub. Therefore, transit through Kaduna will be allowed, provided that such vehicles ply only the Western bye-pass,\u2019\u2019 she clarified.
\nAccording to her, Government recognises that this lockdown will consequences for everyone, but more so for the vulnerable persons in our communities.
\n\u2018\u2019As indicated in previous statements, the government is procuring food and other supplies, funded from its contingency budget, to mitigate the challenges of a lockdown for such persons.
\n\u2018\u2018\u2019These items will be distributed in community clusters across urban local government areas in the state. This will be a grassroots exercise, as it is people drawn from the the target community that will constitute the committee to manage the distribution,\u2019\u2019 she explained.
\nDr Balarabe said that the lockdown is necessary Government doesn\u2019t have the resources and the health facilities to cope with this pandemic should it reach Kaduna State.
\n\u2018\u2018\u2019The struggles of countries with much better health systems should offer a sobering lesson to anyone who seeks to minimise or trivialise the clear and present danger that we face, \u2018\u2019 she added.
\nThe Deputy Governor who assured that the lockdown is not scaremongering, argued that \u2018\u2019we are only observing our solemn obligation to let our people know the full facts, however unpleasant.\u2018\u2019
\nShe pointed out that \u2018\u2019it is much easier and cheaper to prevent this pandemic that to manage it.\u2019\u2019
\nDr Balarabe expressed Government\u2019s gratitude that the federal authorities have responded to its persistent requests by suspending the Abuja-Kaduna train service, adding that \u2018\u2019we expect that thisservice will not resume until the Covid-19 pandemic is declared over.\u2019\u2019
\nThe government also paid tribute to all the residents of state who have complied with public health advice and stayed home, she further said.
\n\u2018\u2019We thank the religious and community leaders, school proprietors, business owners and other citizens who have contributed to our campaign to protect our people from a virus that would easily overwhelm the health facilities and personnel in our state.\u2019\u2019
\nThe Deputy Governor also expressed \u2018\u2019 gratitude to persons who have reported specific suspected cases of Covid-19 infection in their communities or alerted our agencies to violations of the preventive measures.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kaduna State Government has made its threat to shut down if citizens continued to defy government its directives intended to prevent Coronavirus in the State. It has imposed curfew throughout the state, following the non compliance to certain measures that were earlier put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Deputy Governor, Dr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,7],"tags":[1180,1007,161],"class_list":["post-25517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-curfew","tag-kaduna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}