By Archibong Jeremiah
As COVID-19 bites harder, Government at all level have been on their toes to stamp out the pandemic. Both at the Federal, State and Local Government level, citizen’s participation to Government’s activities in the battle against the deadly coronavirus is on the increase.
Some efforts are welcomed while others are greeted with scorn and outmost rejection. In this the Sen. Ben Ayade administration of Cross River State has had its fair share.
The Governor had okayed employment of 10, 000 youths as part of measures to cushion the effect of COVID-19. The employment exercise received accolades as well as criticism.
Pictures from the exercise flooded the social media with social distancing not observed alongside other precautionary measures laid down by NCDC.
The State Government launched its cloth facemask as an alternative to the recommended N95 mask. The quality of the cloth mask was questioned by residents and professionals.
After ordering immediate payment of all outstanding counterpart funding, Ayade defended his stand on social distancing which got fact checked to be wrong.
On recent development, Concerned Citizen’s Forum (CCF) has joined the league of those calling on the Cross River State Government to reassess it’s COVID-19 lockdown policies.
The forum resolved to engage the Ayade Government over concerns on preventing the spread of the virus.
It’s also gave some recommendations to the State Government.
Before now, the State NMA released position paper which came three days after the Association of Cross River Online Journalists (ACROJ) issued a press release calling on the State Governor, Sen. Ben Ayade to review the State lockdown policies.
Also, the Chancellor of Arthur Jarvis University Akpabuyo, Sir Arthur Archibong also lend his voice to those calling on the Ayade administration to rethink it’s lockdown policies.
See their letter dated Friday April 24, 2020 with reference number CCF-2020/001 below.
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