Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday attended the first Ju’mat prayer at the State House Mosque after the new guidelines on religious gathering was released.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Tuesday released new guidelines to ease the lockdown, saying worship centres will only be permitted to operate for a maximum of one hour each time they meet.
The coordinator of the Task Force, Sani Aliyu, had said churches and mosques are only allowed to operate between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.
He said each service should be a maximum of an hour to allow time for disinfection.
He also said Friday prayers in mosques should not exceed one hour.
“For churches, each service should be for a maximum of an hour with an interval of 30 minutes in between services to allow time for disinfection.
“Mosques may open 15 minutes before and 10 minutes after prayers. The total time for Friday prayers should not exceed an hour.”
The the guidelines strongly discourages all close contact including shaking hands, hugging, kissing, handing out of materials and sharing of worship implements including prayer mats, musical organs, microphones etc.
All those (Grade Level 14 and above) who participated in the prayer were thoroughly screened and had to each wear a mask as well as sanitize their hands, as safety measures.
Social distancing was also strictly observed in line with guidelines on public gathering.
Visitors to the Villa were who wanted to joined the prayers were politely excused by the security aides.
President Buhari was joined by senior personal aides you pray.