Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has explained that a total lockdown of the state has no benefit for now in spite of the rising cases of confirmed coronavirus dubbed COVID-19 in the state.
Makinde gave the explanation while participating in a Fresh FM programme in Ibadan.
The governor said he opted for curfew as a form of partial lockdown, which will still allow millions of people who earn daily income to go about their normal businesses while observing World Health Organisation (WHO) precautions on COVID-19.
Makinde said: “when we spoke last Saturday, everything that can be done to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Oyo State, I said, were on the table. We will continue to assess the situation and take additional measures where necessary.
“But remember also that my own background is engineering and I kept saying to people that as an engineer, you take decisions that are based on logic and fact. It’s an uncharted territory. We kept on interacting with the experts to find out what are the facts emerging.
“Yes, Lagos can be on lockdown, Ogun can be on lockdown, Oyo State, yes, people have been saying have a total lockdown and then I have been asking them questions. What will be the benefits here? Are there alternative courses of action for us to take? If you ask people not to come out, you lock down the market places, there are people who what they sell today – the profit from today’s activities is what they will eat tomorrow. There are plenty people like that within our environment. So, are there alternatives available to us? Can we do selective lockdowns? That’s why I imposed the curfew, to say limit interactions.“I think, everything is on the table but it has to follow a logical pattern and it will need the input of experts. We are not just going to lockdown because everyone is locking down”.
