With Ramadan commencing in two weeks time, the Lagos State Government has been urged to scale up lockdown enforcement and social distancing to prevent further spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
The Chairman, Agege Local Government Area, Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Lagos.
Egunjobi said lockdown was the only preventive measure that could help to contain further spread of the virus in the state.
He said: “My wish and prayer is that Lagos State Government should scale up enforcement during Ramadan, which is scheduled to commence in two weeks time.
“I am a practicing Muslim, but no religion, not even Islam subscribe to suicide or attempted suicide.
“We cannot continue to press the self destruction button in the name of worshipping God.”
According to Egunjobi, the local government shut down the popular Mosalasi Alhaja Mosque in Agege to prevent the spread of the pandemic among the worshipers and residents as a whole.
Egunjobi said such action had prevented the possible spread of the pandemic among the over 300 worshipers in the Mosque.
He said: “We recently made the headlines for leading a team of the council officials to shut down a Mosque in the area where worshippers defied state government’s ban on congregational worship amid the Coronavirus.
“They viciously attacked officials of the state task force on the pandemic.
“It was an unfortunate incident that if we had let go and failed to rise up to the occasion, as a grassroots government, it has dire consequences, which would hurt public policy in a great deal.
“It was quite appalling, a clear breach of government’s order, and to add insult to injury they attacked officials of the state ask force on COVID-19.
“We all know that the state government has the capacity to deal with the situation, but because mischievous bigots, ethnic jingoists and misguided elements among us may use the moment to fuel crisis.
“So, it required local solution and we stepped in to handle the situation.”
According to Egunjobi, the council met with the Sarkin Hausawa and other stakeholders before the worshippers were asked out of the Mosque, adding: “Then it was fumigated and I personally locked it up.”
Egunjobi said the council was trying to disabuse the mind of the people from the erroneous belief that Coronavirus was the sickness of the rich.
He said: “I do tell those who insist on having religious gatherings and congregational worships that we cannot be more catholic than the Pope.
“Pope suspended all religious ceremonies from the Catholic mass to funerals in the Vatican.
“The grand zero of Islam, Saudi Arabia, the authorities called off all the year-round Lesser Hajj, Umrah, suspended all the congregational prayers of all forms and shapes in all the country’s Mosques, except the Grand Mosque.
“Haram in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, where there are strict restriction on the numbers of worshippers, while prayer outside the two Holy Mosques are prohibited.”
Egunjobi said before the total lockdown, the council had carried out aggressive sensitisation, but the compliance was nothing to write home about.
The chairman said according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, there was only a case of Coronavirus victim in Agege, but this was not to say that people were doing the right thing.
He added: “Majority of people here are of the view that only the rich contracted Coronavirus and they don’t give a damn about all our sensitisation efforts.
“We are trying to disabuse their minds of the erroneous belief, but we can only try.
“In Nigeria, already we are seeing the sign of things to come.
“The Federal Government had redirected its budget in line with the reality; Lagos is mulling review of its budget to be in tandem with the reality on ground, and all these will cascade down.”
Egunjobi said the council was on a mission to ensure that life goes on in Agege community.
He said the council would continue to embark on sensitisation on the danger of the deadly disease and the need for personal hygiene and social distancing in curtailing its spread.
“We are carrying out fumigation exercise across the community and have provided several palliative measures to ensure that indigents in our midst are not without food,” Egunjobi said.
NAN reports that the council had distributed 400 pieces of 50kg bags of rice; 150 pieces of 50kg bags of beans; 600 2kg bags of Semovita; 150 bags of garri; and 100 gallons of cooking oil to support indigent families.
NAN reports that distribution of the food items were done by the community leaders, Baales, Chiefs and other stakeholders in the council area.
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