…Charges Oyo residents to take responsibility

By Adeola Badru

TO curtail the continued spread of COVID-19 in Oyo State, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has called on community leaders in the state located at the boundary areas to take up the responsibility of reporting an influx of strangers in their communities to security agents nearest to them.

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The Oyo State director of the agency, Mrs Dolapo Dosumu made the appeal on Saturday in Ibadan, while assessing the level of the pandemic in the state.

She expressed concern about the increase in the migration of people from neighbouring countries into Nigeria through the country’s porous land border, and interstate movement, noting that, if proactive steps were not taken immediately to control the trend, it could lead to increase in the cases of the virus in the state.

Dosumu noted that: “You see at the point at which we are now, we cannot afford to have community transmission full-blown in Oyo State. And I know that the facilities available at the state level might not be able to accommodate the number of infected people that are likely to this community transmission.”

“And that is important for us to take responsibility for what we do at this point in time. And more importantly, I want to charge community heads, members and households to be very vigilant.”

“We are aware that strangers are straining into the major cities of the nation. And in Oyo State, we don’t want the increase of any form of community transfusion.” If we allow people to enter or penetrate our communities without being aware, it could bring a lot of problems if the people coming in are infected.”

“It means that they would just transfer the infection to our community members and households,” Dosumu maintained.

While commending the people of the state for the compliance with the government’s directive on social distancing, she appealed to residents to maintain a hygienic lifestyle and the use of hand sanitisers in order to stop the spread of the virus.

Vanguard