Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has said that government would henceforth isolate for the mandatory 14 days any residents of the state returning from either Lagos or Kano states.
Sule said this while addressing traditional rulers and some religious leaders on Monday at a meeting held at the Government House, Lafia.
He said the measure became necessary because of the alarming increase in the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic and the need to protect the residents.
He expressed concern that the virus was spreading fast instead of subsiding, with Katsina and Kano states also under total lockdown
The governor said that his major source of concern for the state was the increasing number of persons that tested positive for the virus in Abuja.
He appealed to traditional rulers, led by the Chairman of the State Traditional Rulers Council and Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bage (rtd.), to ensure that returnees from the two states were isolated.
He disclosed that already, 43 persons returning from Lagos were intercepted at Akwanga on their way to Shendam, in Plateau State.
He explained that having got in touch with his counterpart in Jos, the returnees were escorted to Jos where they were isolated.
He said that five of the travellers escaped into the bush after their vehicle stopped in the forest on their way to Jos.
He added that 13 others, who claimed to come from Nasarawa State, were on their way back to Lafia, where they will go into isolation on their arrival.
“Even if they are our relations, as long as they are returning home from Lagos or Kano, we will go ahead and isolate them and test them,” Sule said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor had earlier in a meeting with council chairmen sought their cooperation to ensure that returnees from Lagos and Kano were isolated before being allowed into the larger society.