JUST IN: Lagos Assembly Passes Bill To Combat COVID-19 Spread

The Lagos State has just passed into law a bill for a law to combat and stop the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in the state.

The bill, which has 25 sections in all, is titled, “A Bill for a Law to Combat and Stop the Spread of Corona Virus Pandemic in Lagos State and for Connected Purposes”.

The lawmakers, before embarking on a two-hour recess, had taken the first and second readings of the bill, after which they committed to the Committee on Health Services of the House for further work and deliberations.

After passing the bill into law, the Speaker, Rt.Hon. Mudashiru Obasa directed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni to prepare and send a clean copy of the bill to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his assent.

Part of the bill recommended that those who flout the coronavirus lockdown directive be jailed for a month or fined N100,000.

The bill, titled ‘A Law to Combat and Stop the Spread of Corona Virus Pandemic in Lagos State and for Connected Purposes’, has 25 sections.

The bill also empowered Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to spend at least N20 billion to combat the pandemic in Lagos State.

It read, “The Bill empowers the Governor to incur the Kick-off expenditure sum of N20 billion to combat and stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The Governor in combating the Coronavirus pandemic shall declare a state of emergency in the State to protect the people of the State from the pandemic.

“The Bill calls for a Trust Fund named Coronavirus Pandemic Trust Fund with a board to manage this, but supervised by the Executive. The Trust fund shall consist of funds and material donations from individuals, private and public organizations.

“As from the commencement of this law, only essential services such as food supply, pharmacy, shops, water supply, petrol filling Stations and other relevant agencies shall be in full operations unless the Governor declares otherwise.

“All security agencies in the state including the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency shall effectively ensure that policy directives of the Governor are implemented and enforced.

“Where there is a violation of a close down or stay at home order, security Agencies shall have the power to arrest without warrant and may detain any person who violates the close down or stay at home order for at least 48 hours.

“Where the arrested person is found guilty, the person is liable to a fine of N100,000.00 or one month imprisonment or three months Community service.”

Lagos, which is considered as the epicentre of coronavirus in Nigeria, has a total of 32 confirmed cases as of 05.45pm on Thursday