BALA Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State says he may be left with no option than to impose a lockdown on Bauchi city if the number of recorded cases of COVID-19 in the city keeps increasing.
Mohammed dropped this hint during a press briefing where he lamented that Bauchi reported a daily record high of 69 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
He attributed the rising cases of infections on the attitude of the people towards obeying health guidelines such as handwashing, use of sanitisers and face masks.
The governor particularly mentioned places of worship such as mosques as the epicentres of the viral disease.
“Some of our places of worship, especially the mosques, they are the epicentre of infections, and nobody is doing anything,” he said.
“I am pleading with the people of Bauchi, if this thing continues to happen – we are bordered by seven states, some of them are worse – in order to secure the common people of Bauchi, I might have to lock up Bauchi,” he added.
The governor also disclosed 15 COVID-19 cases in the state were people who had travelled from Calabar, Cross River’s capital city despite claim’s that Cross River state has no case of the novel virus.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), lists Cross River as the only state in the country without a confirmed case of COVID-19.
However, in a report, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) had decried the obstruction of the NCDC by Kogi and Cross River state governments.
Mohammed who did not hide his dissatisfaction with the development said some of his colleagues in other states were pretending about the COVID-19 status of their states.
“I don’t want to join issues with anybody but I want to tell Nigerians that they are going to be accountable to God. There is no need pretending that this thing is not there, we as leaders, we must come out and face the challenges,” Mohammed said.
Bauchi had experienced a spike in the number of infections on Tuesday, with 69 new cases bringing the toll to 364 confirmed cases.
Bala Mohammed and Baba Tela, his deputy, had contracted the disease but had recovered while other frontline workers have lost their lives which include Bello Katagum, a COVID-19 frontline doctor in Bauchi State.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.
Senator bala should reconsider any decision taking for the sake of the Masses be cause pp are suffering