PDP House caucus charges Buhari to reverse relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caucus in the House of Representatives Sunday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reverse the decision to relax the COVID-19 lockdown.

In a statement signed by its leader, Kingsley Chinda, the caucus said the federal government’s decision to reopen the economy without adequate precautionary measures beyond hand washing and wearing of face masks was precarious.

The Caucus warned that the development would trigger the spread of the virus.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday ordered the gradual relaxation of the COVID-19 induced lockdown in Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He also ordered a nationwide curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., effective from May 4 in a bid to check the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

Chinda said: “It is very apparent that the government is clearly more concerned about the economic benefits of reopening an already weak and ailing economy than the preservation of human life.

“This is without a doubt a very callous, insensitive and most unfortunate response by the Federal Government. The only plausible alternative to this is that the government has run out of ideas on what to do.

“Furthermore, available evidence and statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) show that Nigeria is far from winning the fight against COVID-19, as even within the lockdown, rather than reduce, the casualty rate and the number of those tested positive to the virus is increasing on a daily bases.

“Clearly, this should be a matter of great concern to all reasonable and well-meaning persons, irrespective of political, religious or tribal affiliations and/or considerations.

“As a caucus in the House of Representatives, we are deeply worried about this and accordingly hereby express in very strong and unambiguous terms our utmost dismay, concern and total opposition to the stance of the federal government to prematurely relax and/or lift the lockdown order in the affected places earlier mentioned, and to hurriedly ask workers back to their offices, while the virus continues to ravage our people and our cities.

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“We begin to wonder if the government had no plans when it ordered the lockdown as lockdowns are not ordered for the fun of it but to curtail the spread and allow the government time to put in place policies and measures to be adopted in public places to check the further spread and manage the affected cases, whilst deploying equipment to different parts of the country and also carrying out the massive test, hoping that within 14 days incubation period that citizens are in isolation, most of the cases would be ripe, traced, and managed.

“Unfortunately, while the lockdown was on, our government went to sleep on their core responsibilities and was busy mouthing palliatives without visible action taken.”

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