COVID-19 Lockdown: Aba residents flout stay-at-home order

Some Aba residents on Tuesday flouted the stay-at-home executive order of the Abia State Government, which is meant to check the possible spread of Coronavirus into the state.
NAN reports that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on March 24 endorsed a set of directives meant to check the spread of the pandemic in Abia State.
The directives included buses taking fewer passengers and traders procuring hand-washing materials for customers entering their their shops and stalls.
The government later ordered a complete lockdown of the state on April 1 to ensure the disease did not get into the state, which is yet to record any case.
A News Agency of Nigeria correspondent who went round the town discovered that there were many people moving about on some streets along the Aba-Owerri Road and adjoining streets.
NAN also observed that contrary to government’s instructions, some non-essential service businesses were opened to customers in the city.
Some shops along the Abia University Teaching Hospital Road and adjoining streets like barbing salons, hairdressing salons, electrical and electronic shops, as well as businesses dealing in general wares were opened.
Most transporters, who flouted the order to operate in the city, were carrying more passengers than government directed them to carry at a time, against the  social distancing protocol.
A driver, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that they were taking more passengers because there were few vehicles on the road, with many passengers on the streets.
Ndudiri Anyaehie, a resident, who spoke with NAN, said government was responsible for residents flouting the stay-at-home order.
Anyaehie said: “If the government of Abia had paid workers salaries before the lockdown, it would have been easy for people to adhere to the directive.
“If both the state and the Federal Governments had given people food, they would have stayed at home.
“What you see driving people out to the streets is not money, it is to get food for themselves and their family members.
“I tell you that in Aba, you can hardly get 70 per cent compliance, if the government fails to meet their feeding needs, during the lockdown.
“So our government should do the right thing, then the right answer will come out of it.”