Lagos warns event centres, cinemas against reopening

• Says Directive On Closure Remains

Lagos State government has warned against the reopening of events centres and cinemas, explaining that owners of various social centres across the state must register their facilities pending when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu will give further directives regarding their operations.

The Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Pharmacist Uzamat AkinbiIe-Yusuf, who made the clarification following reports that owners of event centre could now open for operations, maintained that all event centres and cinemas are to remain shut for now.

In a statement, yesterday, she explained that the state government is yet to make any disclosure on the date for the reopening of the centres, as such disclosure would be made by the governor provided that the event centres have met all laid down procedures ahead of their reopening, including registering under the Register-To-Open initiative of the state government.

The Commissioner noted that the initiative was meant to certify the safety preparedness of various business outfits including event centres before they are allowed to re-open for business activities.

Speaking on the limited number of persons that would be allowed to gather at the various event centres, Akinbile-Yusuf explained that the state government would only allow one-fifth of the capacity of each event centres, which should not be more than 500 persons regardless of the size of the hall.

She said: “We have global guidelines that deal with both social and religious centres, but we have specific ones for certain categories.”

The Commissioner informed that the status quo of only take-away for restaurants and eateries remains, stressing that their operations must not run foul of already stipulated operational guidelines during this period.

According to her: “Only hotels and restaurants are allowed to open for business activities for now in the entire hospitality industry, while others should continue with their registration processes ahead of further directives from the Incident Commander of the State which is Mr. Governor.”