COVID-19: FG blames porous borders for rise in cases

The Federal Government said yesterday that the spike in the number of COVID-19 infections in the country was as a result of the nation’s porous borders, predicting that there could be more infections in the eastern flank of the country as people move on foot across borders.

Consequently, government said it would do everything possible to stop cross-border activities of herdsmen who move from other countries into Nigeria. This came on as day Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, signed the Diseases (Emergency Prevention) Regulations 2020 to prevent spread of the virus in the state, which number of infections have spiked in the last 48 hours.

The state confirmed six new cases of the virus yesterday. This is even as the young nurse who took part in the treatment of the Benue Coronavirus index case in Makurdi (names withheld),  who earlier allegedly fled the town after the status of the index case was made public, has been apprehended and placed in isolation. Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, said yesterday during the daily briefing of the Task Force, that the Federal Government would also put in place measures to control movement of nomadic herdsmen who go across borders in search of greener pastures for their cattle. On the border issue and movement of herdsmen, the SGF said: “This is a very serious issue because as they move around; sometimes they go in search of pastures across borders. It is a major challenge. We will look at that and begin to address it. “But that also comes to one fundamental issue that has been very topical in the last one or two years.

That is whether we need to make provision of land in our constituencies so that we can domesticate this nomadic pasturing. “From one issue, it dovetailed into another. If we eventually get that done, this kind of issue will not arise. I acknowledge that yes, as long as they cross borders, they create a problem for tracking, for infection, because our neighbouring countries are not isolated from this pandemic right now.

“The report we are getting is that some of the infections that have surfaced, not confirmed though, from Akwa Ibom and some of the ones that might begin to show across the eastern flank will be as a result of people crossing just on foot from other borders into Nigeria. “We will be looking at that with the Minister of Interior to see how we can enforce closures of land borders through the established, designated outlays and also the porous areas that we have not been able to cover with facilities to restrict movements across the borders.

“You know we come from a long history of relationship with our neighbours that has shifted over the years. That has made substantially a long stretch of our borders to be porous and communities live across each other. That is an accident of history that we must live with, but we must find solutions to them.”