Magnus Eze, Enugu
Ohanaeze Ndigbo has urged South East states’ governors to tighten security at their boundaries to forestall influx of people from other states, following the current ban on inter-state travels.
President of Ohanaeze in Enugu, Alex Ogbonnia, stated this when he led a monitoring team to the border town of Umuogbu-Inyi between Enugu and Benue states, at the weekend.
Ogbonnia said the exercise was to complement the efforts of the state government even as he lauded Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for his administration’s pro-active steps in containing the COVID-19, including distribution of palliatives to the people.
He remarked that Inyi community is the gateway into the Igbo land from the North, explaining that if all the Igbo boundary communities were well fortified, the Igbo heartland would be free from coronavirus.
Conducting vehicle checks, members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo insisted that a tarpaulin of a lorry, said to be conveying tubers of yam from the North, be unveiled. In the process, 15 persons who disguised as goods were found in the lorry. The defaulters, who claimed to be yam traders, were taken to a COVID-19 test centre for proper checks before they could be allowed into Enugu State and Igbo land.
The Ohanaeze boss lamented that even with the severity of the pandemic and government directive that people should stay within their states, Nigerians were still flouting the order. He urged Nigerians to obey the inter-state lockdown to reduce the risk of spread of the coronavirus.