14-days lockdown: SGF dares governors, says only President Buhari can declare

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha dares Nigerian governors for proposing a 14 days of national lockdown of the country.

Mustapha said, it’s President President Muhammadu Buhari that has such powers to decide on the 14-days national lockdown.
The governors of 36 States had on Wednesday unanimously agreed to implement a 14-day national lockdown as part pf measures to contain spread of COVID-19 in the country.

He said the governors’ proposal and every inputs would be collated and submitted to the President.

“Basically what they (governors) are suggesting is that travels from one state to the other should be stopped with certain exemptions of essential services, petroleum products, farm inputs, fertilizer so that we can keep the wheel of our economy ready.

“Like I said, that is their proposal, federal government is yet to take a decision and as to whether that will be part of our report, the presidential taskforce will meet and take holistic look at all the proposals that are coming in as to the next line of action going forward.

“This will not be taken in isolation and so I want to assure you that we are working in synergy and collaboratively with the state governments and subnational entities that with this phase going into the third phase, it will be more collaborative that we would have taken into consideration the inputs and interests of different segments of our society,” he said.

Also speaking, National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force, Dr Sani Aliyu, said they would continue to engage closely with the state governments to control spread of the disease in the country.

“We are particularly pleased to note the decision by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to restrict inter-states travel. This is really important when it comes to reducing the risks of inter-state spread and transmission of the virus,” he said.