Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Government has urged civil servants to comply with all safety measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection.
Head of Service (HoS), Biobelemoye Charles-Onyema, who stated this while commissioning an automated solar powered hand washing and sanitizing machine fabricated by a member of staff of the Engineering Services Department of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure for the use of workers, described the construction and donation of the machine to one of the secretariat blocks by the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure as a stitch in time.
According to her, the machine came in handy as COVID-19 cases keep increasing daily, adding that it would help in curbing the spread of the virus.
She congratulated the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Johnson Dagana, and the inventor, Ebregbe Solomon, reckoning that she was excited to know that a civil servant could invent such a machine.
The HoS also called on other civil servants to emulate Solomon in proffering solutions to societal problems.
She emphasised the need for workers and visitors to the secretariat to practice good hygiene by washing and sanitizing their hands regularly.
Dagana, in his remarks, said the machine was constructed in line with measures put in place by the Federal Government, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the state government and the COVID-19 task force to manage the pandemic in all possible way.
While noting that the machine would help in containing the spread of the pandemic as regular hand washing and sanitizing are some of the key protocols of COVID-19, he called on private organisations and other government agencies to procure the machine for use in their various offices.
Permanent Secretary, Management and Welfare Services Bureau in the office of the HoS, George Bunana, said with the invention, it shows that problems within the Bayelsa environment can be solved if the ingenuity of its people can be tapped into.