Enforcement teams of the Lagos police command are visiting markets, shopping malls, superstores, shops, business premises among others to ensure full compliance, as the directive by the government to shut down takes effect today, Thursday, March 26.
The directive issued on Tuesday by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is one of several other measures being adopted by federal and state governments to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Nigeria as at Thursday has confirmed 51 cases of the Coronavirus with Lagos, its major commercial city, having 32 of the total cases.
In Lagos, the police had in the last six days deployed resources to ensure that the guidelines and directives issued by both the federal and state governments to curtail the virus are obeyed.
Hakeem Odumosu, Commissioner of Police (CP), Lagos command, warned that operators of business premises, stores and markets who violate the directives have the law to contain with.
“Corporate bodies such as financial institutions, telecommunication companies and businesses not affected by the ban should also ensure that both their employees and customers/clients are not more than 25 in number at a time. Staff should be posted to ATM stands to ensure that customers using the services space themselves to avoid body contact,” said Odumosu.
The CP also advised hotels to only operate lodging and accommodation services with minimal number of staff on duty, reiterating that conference and event halls, swimming pools and other services attracting crowds should be suspended in line with the order and directives of the government.
He warned eateries to encourage their customers to use take away services and those who must sit in the restaurants should apply the required spacing guidelines, not exceeding 25 persons at a time, including their staff.
The police enforcement teams before now had shut down eight clubs, 15 schools, six event centres and eight places of worship for non compliance.
The enforcement is now being extended to non-food markets and stores, as only markets selling food items, water, medicine, pharmacies, medical equipment and other related essential life saving products are allowed to open in any part of the state.
