COVID-19: Benue advises electoral commission to postpone LG poll
The Benue state Executive Council has advised the Benue state Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) to shift the proposed council polls scheduled to hold this Saturday by two weeks as a way of checking the spread of the coronavirus.
The council said the postponement of the polls as would be approved by the electoral body for two weeks would be in the first instance.
Governor Samuel Ortom, who made the discourse after the meeting at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi on Tuesday, also directed the release of an additional N50 million to purchase more facilities to tackle cases of the coronavirus in case of it presence in the state.
According to him, although there is no presence of COVID-19 in the state, he is worried that one of the prominent personalities who travelled abroad has come back to the state and cautioned anyone with suspicious virus to report his or herself to the committee for necessary action.
Reading the communiqué of the state executive council meeting, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Tony Ijohor said the council has approved the establishment of isolation centres from the three senatorial districts of the state in addition to the two existing ones.
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The council named the Deputy Governor, Benson Abounu as chairman of the committee monitoring and implementation of COVID-19 preventive measures has the commissioner for health and human services as secretary.
The committee revolved to hold public enlightenments in motor -parks, markets and advised the public to avoid crowded places.
The communiqué directed civil servants on grade levels 1-12 to stay and work from home while those on grade levels 13 and above are to report to offer skeletal services, while pledging to adopt a template issued by federal government in fighting the scourge.
It said medical experts from the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, the Benue state Teaching hospital, World Health Organization and others have been adopted as members of the committee to tackle the virus in the event of an outbreak.
