Oyo State Government has disclosed that it would fight COVID-19 in the state through self-policing initiative instead of using the regular security agents to enforce compliance.
The state government said the decision was aimed at preventing the security agents from harassing the members of the public.
Prof. Olanike Adeyemo, Chairman, Oyo State COVID-19 Decontamination and Containment Committee, gave the hint at the training of the members of the decontamination response team in the state.
Adeyemo, who is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnership, University of Ibadan, said members of the team were being prepared to work from their various locations across the state in a bid to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decontamination team was provided with fogging machines, motorised sprayers, coveralls, helmets, knapsack sprayers, protective goggles, industrial hand gloves, nose covers and protective boots.
The DVC said, “This is the next step in the de-containment of COVID -19 in the state as the virus has spread beyond Ibadan.
You can image if there is an incident in Ibarapa and there is another one in Iseyin, it will be very difficult for you to cover all. What the government is trying to do is to decentralise the containment efforts. This is embedded in all local governments across the state.
“Every local government has an environmental officer. These are the people that are being trained because they are the staff of Oyo State that are ready to take up the task as front-liners on behalf of the state. We will do it across geographical zones.
“We knew what happened when we had inter-state lockdown. This COVID -19 is another avenue for some people to extort the people and harass them, but we are not ready for that. People were moving and they just needed to give money to security agents at every checkpoint.
“What we are advocating is self-policing. We have compliance form; when you see someone not doing the right thing, you can report him, especially organisations because you can hold them accountable. I just sent a video recording of what is going on in a commercial bank here in Ibadan to the governor. Something has to be done about keeping the COVID-19 protocols in banks.
“It is about being responsible and responsive. We all have to know that the more the infection rate, the more you are likely to have mortality or death rate. So, you can’t joke with the disease. I charge everyone that is responsible, whether you own a business or banks, to take responsibility for people under the sphere of their influence. You need to protect your customers.
“At the state level, we are advocating self-policing now.
Even if it doesn’t affect you, it can affect somebody you know. It is about charging the people. In developed countries, they are doing the same thing. You walk up to people and ask for their masks. I think we are getting to that point because this is not a joking matter. I think that is what we need to do more than throwing people out to harass people and extort money from them.
“COVID-19 is not a joking matter. In Oyo State this morning, we had 27 people that had died. That is not just a number. Those are somebody’s fathers, mothers, and children. So, we can’t afford to play politics. We can’t afford to joke around COVID-19. It is something we need to take seriously.”
On why Oyo State records a high number of COVID-19 cases, he said, “We are number three on the table not because we have more cases in Oyo State than the other but because we test more.
If you compare Oyo with states like Edo that is behind us, definitely, they are under reporting. So, I think Oyo State is doing more testing and that is why we are there.”
The Deputy Chief of Staff to the governor, Mojeed Mogbonjubola, “It is quite unfortunate that the pandemic is spreading like wikd fire and we couldn’t really contain it alone in Ibadan. What the governor is doing in conjunction with the University of Ibadan is to extend the committee to all zones in the state.
“Today, we are retraining the personnel so that they can go back to their different zones and continue with the decontamination. This is a call to service. It is a privilege for everybody to be part of it.”
A total of 77 personnel were trained on how to decontaminate homes and offices in their locations.
