Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has directed the Ministry of Homeland Security to quarantine relatives and mourners who visited the family of a man believed to have died in Kano of coronavirus.
Ikpeazu’s directive followed a report that a family sneaked into the state, at the weekend, the corpse of their father who allegedly died of COVID-19 in Kano and was ferried to a community in Umuahia South Local Government Area, where unsuspecting citizens have been going to mourn with them unprotected.
The governor said the quarantine of the deceased’s family members and everyone in the compound would remain in place pending when the state medical rapid response team has fully collected and tested samples of all those involved, including their visitors and mourners.
Commissioner for Information, John Okiyi-kalu, in a statement, entitled: “Remain wherever you are till this pandemic is over,” said: “Abia State government has received multiple intelligence and confirmation of certain persons and families of Abia origin currently residing in states with rising cases of COVID-19 planning to bring home corpses of family members, suspected to have died from the virus for burial in our communities in violation of the existing ban on inter-state movement and without notification or approval from relevant authorities in the state.
“The most worrisome case is that of a family that recently sneaked into the state at the weekend the corpse of their father who allegedly died of COVID-19 in Kano and was ferried to a community in Umuahia South council where unsuspecting citizens have been going to mourn with them unprotected.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to restate that whoever enters our state during this period of ban on inter-state movement is in breach of state and federal regulations and will have themselves to blame as the law will be applied to the fullest to protect the people of Abia State.”