Zulum bans visitors to Borno IDP camps over COVID-19

• Lalong trains Plateau LG bosses, security personnel
• Benue to supply sanitisers to its camps

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has banned all visitors to over a dozen Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps across the state.

According to him, the restriction was part of the state’s strategy to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) that has claimed thousands of lives globally.

Disclosing the ban yesterday in Maiduguri, the state capital, he said the IDPs and their camps were vulnerable to the virus if such measures were not taken.

“This move was part of the administration’s strategy to contain the outbreak of the virus in IDP camps and other parts of the state,” he said.

Zulum had also last week appointed his deputy, Umar Kadafur, to chair a high-powered multi-stakeholder response team against the pandemic.

In Plateau State, Governor Simon Lalong yesterday drew the attention of the council chairmen and security council secretaries to the current global health challenges.

Lalong stated this at Government House, Little Rayfield, Jos, at a ‘Security Reporting Workshop for Local Government Chairmen and Security Council Secretaries’.

According to him, although no case of coronavirus has been recorded in the state, “we need to be on our guard and sensitise our people.”

He called on them to activate all necessary machinery to educate the people at the grassroots about personal hygiene, the symptoms of the disease and measures to take should there be any suspected case.

He stressed that the training workshop should move them closer to plugging the loopholes in the security system, which creates vulnerability.

Meanwhile, Benue State government has said it is evolving measures to protect those living in IDPs camps by providing sanitisers across the nine camps in the state.

The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Sunday Ongbabo, who made this known to newsmen in Makurdi, said there was no single cause of COVID-19 in the state.

He added that the state government was aware of the growing spread of the pandemic in the country and was not resting on its oars.

“We will try to get hand sanitisers and distribute. The demand is much, but we will try our best,” he said.