Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has urged digital satellite TV service providers, DSTV and Startimes to extend already existing subscription to Nigeria by at least one month free to help them ease some of the difficulties associated with the lockdown ordered by the Federal Government in some states to tackle the menace of COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
The Minister made this appeal through his Twitter handle on Monday. He said “as one of the Ministers entrusted with the welfare of Nigerian workers, I politely urge @DStvNg & @StarTimes_Ng to extend all EXISTING subscriptions by at least one month, free-of-charge, as their own contribution to ease the pains of Nigerian workers at this time of lockdown.
“I would also urge @MTNNG @9mobileng @AirtelNigeria @GloWorld to consider giving Nigerians some token airtime & data to ease their pains & to ensure that communication with individuals & authorities is ensured in cases of emergencies, especially when toll-free numbers are busy.”.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a national broadcast on Sunday imposed total lockdown on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria’s commercial center Lagos State and Ogun state in the South West as part of the measures to tackle the dreaded virus that has ravaged the world in the last couple of weeks.
As of Sunday, March 29, 2020, confirmed cases of those that have tested positive to the pandemic hit 111 in Nigeria. Most of the cases so far recorded happened to be among the political elite class. The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari; Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El- Rufai; Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed and the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) were among those infected by the virus and they are reportedly on self isolation.
Nigeria has so far recorded one death from the pandemic when former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC ) Suleiman Achimugu died of the virus barely a week ago in Abuja.
There are reports of another death from the virus on Monday but the authorities have not made any categorical statements on it at the time of filing this report,
By Innocent Odoh, Abuja
