Before We Allow You Reopen For Services –Sanwo-olu's Letter to the Churches

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has issued conditions to churches and mosques desiring to resume physical services before they could be allowed to reopen.

The directive would centre on them observing the social distancing and hygiene prerequisites set by the state in view of containing coronavirus.

Briefing after the State Security Council meeting at the Lagos House, Marina yesterday,

 the governor 

said:

“We are at a level where we are reviewing the other arms of the economy. In the coming days, we will be starting what we call Register-to-Open, which means all players in the restaurant business, event centres, entertainment, malls and cinemas, will go through a form of re-registration and space management.

“There is a regulation that will be introduced to supervise this move. We will be coming to their facilities to assess their level of readiness for a future opening. I don’t know when that opening will happen in the weeks ahead, but we want these businesses to begin to tune themselves to the reality of COVID-19 with respect to how their work spaces need to look like.

“For us, it is not to say they should re-open fully tomorrow or any time; there has been a process guiding the re-opening.

“We will be mandating LASEPA and safety commission to begin the enumeration process and the agencies will be communicating with all relevant businesses and houses in the days ahead. I must, however, caution that this should not be misinterpreted as a licence for full opening; it is certainly not. The state’s economy is not ready for that now.”

Saying that government could not afford to keep people and businesses on lockdown permanently, Sanwo-olu said officials from the Lagos State Safety Commission and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency would be in the streets in the coming days.

Their mission, he informed would be to assess the readiness of the aforementioned organisations and groups to reopen depending on their readiness to abide by the conditions.

Apart from churches and mosques, all other relevant organisations and companies are also expected to be visited before they reopen.