Lockdown: Behave yourself or stay at home beyond two weeks, FG tells Nigerians

The Federal Government has warned Nigerians of possible extension of the 14-day lockdown if they fail to behave themselves.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday ordered a two-week lockdown in Ogun, Lagos and Abuja to contain the spread of coronavirus in Nigeria.

But speaking at a forum organised by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday, The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said Nigerians’ compliance with the president’s directive in the affected states would determine whether such lockdown would be extended or not.

Mohammed, is also a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said: “If we don’t behave ourselves, there is a likelihood that the lockdown will be extended, but if we behave ourselves, there might not be an extension and I hope we do so.

“If we stay at home for two weeks and we are doing everything we are supposed to do, we should be able to effectively contain the disease.

“Therefore, my appeal to Nigerians is that they should obey the directive on social distancing, personal hygiene and shun gatherings; after two weeks, we will resume our normal life.

“But if they think it is a joke, then we may have to stay at home more than the two weeks.”

Nigeria currently has 190 confirmed cases of the pandemic — a development which has seen Nigerian government introduced several measures including nationwide closure of schools as well as restriction of large social and religious gatherings.