Empty Cathedral of St. Michael, Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) Kaduna
The Ogun state government has suspended plans to reopen worship centres.
Dapo Abiodun, governor of the state, broke the news while addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, on Friday.
The government had earlier scheduled the reopening of worship centres for June 19, just like Lagos, which ended up reversing its decision.
“After a careful review of the data, feedback from the field, expert opinions, and lessons from far and near, two major conclusions are very clear and obvious to all: first, the COVID-19 situation in Ogun State and indeed in the country as a whole has not improved since the last update,” Abiodun said.
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“And there are dire consequences in loss of human lives for premature relaxation of the guidelines, necessitating a rollback of the relaxation in a number of states and countries. Unfortunately, guidelines may be rolled back, the lost human lives cannot be rolled back.
“Consequently, we are confronted with two choices – yield to the demand of those who want the restrictions to be further relaxed or even completely removed, even if this is at variance with the dictates of incontrovertible data analysis and scientific opinion; or tow the path that preserves public health and safety, even if not so popular.
“As a responsible administration, we choose life and the wellbeing of our citizens and are therefore constrained to take the painful but necessary decision to maintain the current regime of eased lockdown in the meantime.
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“We are consequently suspending our initially slated reopening of places of worship.”
As of Thursday evening, Ogun had recorded 586 cases of COVID-19.
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