COVID-19: Ogun suspends reopening of Mosques, Churches

Gov Dapo Abiodun 

Ogun State government has suspended the reopening of mosques and churches earlier slated for Friday, 19th June and Sunday, 21st June, 2020 respectively.

The governor disclosed this on Friday, while speaking with journalists in his office on update and efforts to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

The governor said: "After a careful review of the data, feedback from the field, expert opinions, and lessons from far and near, two major conclusions are very clear and obvious to all: first, the COVID-19 situation in Ogun State and indeed in the country as a whole has not improved since the last update; secondly, there are dire consequences in loss of human lives for premature relaxation of the guidelines, necessitating a rollback of the relaxation in a number of states and countries.

"Unfortunately, guidelines may be rolled back, the lost human lives cannot be rolled back. Consequently, we are confronted with two choices – yield to the demand of those who want the restrictions to be further relaxed or even completely removed, even if this is at variance with the dictates of incontrovertible data analysis and scientific opinion; or tow the path that preserves public health and safety, even if not so popular.

"As a responsible administration, we choose life and the wellbeing of our citizens and are therefore constrained to take the painful but necessary decision to maintain the current regime of eased lockdown in the meantime.

"We are consequently suspending our initially slated reopening of places of worship".

Great Achiever Magazine reports that Governor Abiodun thanked some of the religious leaders who by themselves advised government that this is the best decision that should be taken at this time in the best interest of all.

The governor said it was not an easy decision, but he was confident that the wisdom and scientific basis for the decision will become clearer to those who may have initial misgivings about it.

He added that since the advent of the pandemic in the state, the cautious, methodical, data-driven and scientifically supported approach employed has ensured not only comparably superior outcomes, "we have also not had reasons to reverse our decisions, because our decisions are usually well thought out", Abiodun concluded.

The governor reiterated that all 5 working days in the week (Monday to Friday) are still opened for businesses and other economic transactions with only Saturday and Sunday as lockdown days.

He said the dusk-to-dawn curfew as directed by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) i.e. between 10.00pm and 4.00am daily is still in place, while restrictions on Interstate travel are still in force, saying that wearing of face masks in the public is still mandatory.