Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has lifted the ban on burials and wedding ceremonies in the state beginning from Saturday, July 4, 2020.
Emmanuel who announced this during the routine interactive session with the citizens aired by state-owned Radio and television stations Thursday evening however gave strict guidelines to be followed while holding such ceremonies especially social distancing and wearing of the facemask.
He warned that anybody who fails to adhere strictly to those guidelines and precautionary measures which were outlined by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for the opening of social gatherings in the state would be arrested.
He appealed to the citizens to encourage the government not to continue to spend much in managing the COVID-19 pandemic by obeying the simple guidelines and warned that he would not hesitate to shut down the state again if residents fail to obey the guidelines.
His words,“Let me announce here that we will allow weddings, burials effective from Saturday, July 4. We will allow people to bury their loved ones because the mortuaries are getting fuller.But if you are doing a funeral in an open space, you must take a maximum of 50 people. If you want to do it inside the Church please let it not be more than 30 people.“So we have come to an understanding that we cannot bury our loved ones the way we used to. I know how we celebrate burials, but please let’s look at the situation at hand that we are trying to manage. For those who want to do a wedding, we will allow you to do it, but please follow the same guideline.“You must adhere to all those guidelines outlined by the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) Akwa Ibom State branch.The primary aim of every single guideline rolled out by the government is to protect the lives of the citizens and residents.“We will send out our monitoring team to enforce compliance. If you don’t comply I will arrest you. And please don’t call us a bad name because you want to be above the Law. Nobody is above the law.“Let me also warn here that if you must go out, wear a face mask. If you don’t want to wear a mask, please stay at home.I don’t want us to get to a point where we are overwhelmed by the situation.If we discover that people are not obeying the simple guidelines we will not hesitate to shut down the state again.
