Covid-19: Ogun government closes International and State borders

&NewLine;<p>The Ogun State Government has announced the closure of its borders with the neighbouring states and the international border with the Republic of Benin&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The closure will be effected at 12 Midnight on Sunday&comma; 29th March&comma; 2020&period; It will be in force for two weeks in the first instance&period; With this restriction order&comma; movement in and out of the state is thus banned as a further measure to contain the corona virus pandemic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In a statement issued on Saturday in Abeokuta by Kunle&NewLine;Somorin&comma; Chief Press Secretary&comma; Governor Dapo Abiodun&comma; the state is constrained&NewLine;to effect border closure in order to stem and flatten the curve of the spread&NewLine;of the dreaded corona virus &lpar;COVID-19&rpar; pandemic&comma; not only in the state but in&NewLine;the country and in the West African sub-region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The position of Ogun State is peculiar&period; It not only&NewLine;shares an international border with the Republic of Benin&comma; it does so with all&NewLine;other states in the South West &lpar;except Ekiti&rpar;&comma; including Lagos State&comma; which has&NewLine;understandably recorded the highest number of infections in the country largely&NewLine;because it hosts the busiest air and sea ports and it’s the nation’s economic&NewLine;capital&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The border closure will not only be beneficial to Ogun&NewLine;State but the national efforts to curtail and contain the virus&period; Lessons from&NewLine;other climes strongly indicate that closure of borders has the potential to&NewLine;drastically flatten the curve of spread whilst unrestricted movement portends grave&NewLine;dangers”&comma; Governor Abidoun further explained&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The only exceptions to the interstate restrictions are&NewLine;vehicles conveying personnel involved in essential services such as security&NewLine;agencies&comma; health workers&comma; food and medical items and petroleum products&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Statement enjoined citizens to fully cooperate with the security agencies who have been fully briefed and directed to effect the closure&comma; noting that at this period of a global pandemic and national emergency all hands must be on deck to slow down the spread of COVID-19&period; The border closure and other measures will be reviewed from time to time&comma; in response to developments as they unfold&comma; the statement concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;