COVID-19: Gov Bello lifts ban on religious gatherings

From Ahmed Ibrahim, Lokoja

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has lifted the ban placed on religious congregations across the state with immediate effect, to allow religious bodies have their normal worship and services.
The directive was contained in a statement signed by Mr Kingsley Fanwo, the Commissioner for Information and Communication and made available to newsmen in Lokoja yesterday.
Governor Bello, however urged all religious leaders to put in place preventive and precautionary measures in their various worship centres in order to contain the outbreak and spread of coronavirus in the state.
He further stressed the need for the religious leaders to continue to pray for the end of the pandemic so that the world could return to normal life and activities.
The commissioner charged religious leaders to put in place sanitizers for all worshippers at the entrance of churches and mosques, even as he emphasized that sitting arrangements in places of worships should be done to ensure social distancing.
Equally, the commissioner stressed that churches and mosques should make their services as brief as possible in order not to keep a large crowd of worshipers within an enclosed confinement for a long period of time.
‘’The COVID-19 Squadron Committee also enjoined religious leaders to continue to pray for the end of the pandemic so that the world can return to normal life and activities.