By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Representatives of Lagos State Government and religious leaders at a closed-door meeting have failed to reach an agreement after several hours of deliberation on the planned move to shut down religious houses in the state.

The measure, according to the state government is in furtherance to the efforts of the government at both state and federal level, in curtailing the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Nigeria and the state in particular.

Commissioner for Home Affairs, Anofiu Elegushi, who led the state delegation, had earlier, along with religious leaders held a press briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, on the need of religious leaders to educate members and congregation to reiterate the preventive measures as well as exercise extreme caution to nip the spread in the bud before it becomes endemic in the state.

The parties went into a closed-door meeting at 2.30 pm and by 4.30 pm, they were yet to reach a conclusion on the matter.

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However, Elugushi is expected to present the communiqué to the media at the end of the meeting. The state government is planning to shut down Churches and Mosques for a period of time in order to break the spread of CPVID-19 in the state and the country at large.”

The commissioner at the briefing said, “As a responsible and responsive government, it behooves on us to bring our Religious Leaders up to speed on the unwanted disease that is subtly creeping into the state, the Corona Virus.

“As we are well aware Corona Virus (COVID-19) which originated from Wuhan in China as become a matter of great concern for World Leaders. For those of us who have been following the trend of events after the news broke out, we will discover that religious colourations and sentiments are being introduced to this health issue.

“This is why we have invited you all to this briefing and sensitisation programme to have firsthand knowledge of the causes, effect, and prevention.”

vanguard