By M. Peter – Jos
Religious leaders in Jos North local government area of Plateau state have been urged to sensitize their members on the need to adhere to professional advice aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Management Committee Chairman of Jos North LGA, Shehu Usman gave the charge on the heel of recent street protest and denial of the existence of the disease by some religious adherents.
Videos emerged on some social media platforms last week showing youths on the streets of the LGA, disregarding social distance and other professional pieces of advice given by the state government.
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This has however drawn the irk of responsible citizens who see such behaviour as a direct affront aimed at thwarting the efforts of government in containing the disease.
Reacting, Usman appealed to citizens to be law abiding stressing.
Shehu Usman, Chairman, Management Committee, Jos North L.G.A.
“We have set up a Local Government Awareness Committee, we are doing our best to ensure people abide by government directives on the disease. What happened at Tan-Taya, we are tackling the issue at the State level, very soon, we will make official statement about that.
“There is this issue of belief in religion and we want people to understand that corona virus is not an issue of religion, it is something that is the world over not only Plateau State. We are reaching out to religious leaders to understand and see what is happening so we are all doing our best to educate the people.
“Religious leaders are to encourage their followers to adhere strictly to the directives from government because they are advice from professionals to see how we can curb the issue of corona virus. We should all pray because this issue is beyond taking measures, we have to commit it to God to see us through. Religious leaders should collaborate with government and pray so that we can come out of this collectively.”
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Speaking on the suspected case in his local government area, he stressed, “last Thursday, my attention was drawn to a suspected case in Gangare. One Alhaji Hassan Saleh traveled, the immediate community was concerned about the issue since he is an ally of the Governor of Bauchi State. There was a need for us to check so I called the Commissioner for Health and his sample collected and taken to Abuja. The result confirmed he was negative.”
Usman commended the community people for being observant and attributed that to the level of awareness the people are getting.
