Coronavirus: Buhari will decide whether to extend lockdown or not this week

President Muhammadu Buhari will decide whether to extend the lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states or not, after going through the report from the presidential task-force on Covid-19, according to Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

On Sunday, March 29, 2020, Buhari ordered the restriction of movement and the closure of businesses in the aforementioned cities for 14 days, in order to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The lockdown began shortly before midnight of March 30.

Speaking in Lagos on Tuesday, Mustapha, who is the chairman of the presidential task force on Covid-19, said his team would make a submission to the president, who would further hand down a directive on the lockdown, TheCable reports.

“Before the end of the week, we would do an evaluation to see how the objectives we have set are being met. At the end of that exercise, we would have the responsibility of reporting to Mr President, because Mr President in his declaration did state that it was on the advice of the minister of health and the health experts that informed his decision to sign the quarantine declaration 2020,” he said.

“At the end of our evaluation, certain sets of recommendation and advice would go to Mr President. And at that point, he and he alone takes the decision as to whether the lockdown will be extended or whether it would stop at the expiration of the 14 days.

“Because in his address to the nation, he did say 14 days in the first instance. So, it is open, it is based on what has happened within these 14 days. And objectives that have been set, have they been met? Have we achieved success in the direction we want to go?

Mr Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation [Twitter/@econec_resao] Pulse Nigeria

“If that has been achieved, he would look at all the information available to him as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I can assure you he would take a decision that it’s in the best interest of the people of Nigeria.”

Mustapha added that the federal government has no desire to punish citizens by keeping them at home, but “the difficult decision was taken to save lives by preventing spread”.

He also said reports have been received on the general level of satisfactory compliance in Lagos and there were also reports on violations.

“In this case, I commend the instant action taken by the Lagos state government by prosecuting and convicting notable violators, which shows that nobody should be above the law,” Mustapha added.