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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
A third-term member of the Senate, Teslim Folarin, representing Oyo Central in the National Assembly, on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday described the position taken by President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast on COVID-19 Cumulative Lockdown transmitted nationwide on Monday as disappointing and a mere political decision that stood against all logic.
He made his mind known when he spoke via telephone on a radio programme, COVID-19 Situation Room, of Fresh FM, Ibadan.
Folarin, a former Senate leader, and 2015 governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State stated that he had carefully studied the speech and the latest position taken by the president on the total lockdown stood against all logic, alleging that Nigerian governors actually forced Buhari to take the new stand.
He said the position taken by the president stood against all logic when the reviewed the statistics, ranging from the first lockdown to the second one. According to him, the country has over 147 per cent increase in the pandemic outbreak.
Folarin was of the opinion that Buhari ought to have announced another round of lockdown for two weeks, saying: “As of this morning (Tuesday), we have 1,273 cases, 40 deaths in 32 states, amounting to 294 per cent rise. Mr. President’s action stands against all logic. If I have to be honest, I was disappointed with the position Mr. President took. It stands against all logic.
“The governors didn’t want to spend money. I don’t know why. They don’t want to spend money. They said to the president behind the scene, if you want us to lockdown, give us money and the president is not willing to release money to them.
“So, they put pressure on the president and Mr. President is seeing high resistance from the citizens that there can’t be total lockdown without palliatives. For that reason, Mr President allowed the governors to have their way, that’s what I suspect.”
Folarin also criticised Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for not locking down the state totally, saying: “In Oyo State, we have not locked down a single day. Now, you talked about people who have a history of travelling that isn’t the problem, the problem is community transmission.
”A trader from Saki, for instance, will come to Ibadan and go to Bodija Market or Sango Market, get infected and go back to Saki and start infecting people. If we lockdown for 14 days, we would know those who are sick, people who have the virus and those who are free but because the government does not want to invest in palliative, that is the issue.”
