Tony John, Port Harcourt

Rivers Governor,  Nyesom Wike, has warned against the politicisation of the fight against coronavirus,  saying all stakeholders must make sacrifices to contain it. 

He spoke, yesterday,   after inspecting the state food bank established for the distribution  of the food palliatives.

In it, the state government has rice, garri, beans, noodles, yam,  palm oil and salt to be distributed to the less privileged in all the 23 Local Government Areas.

“We say to our people, this is not a time to play politics.  Nobody should play politics with the lives of people.  Everybody has to make sacrifices to make sure everyone stays alive.”

He announced that his administration has set in motion the platform for the distribution of food palliatives  to Rivers people, following the sit-at-home directive to check the spread of coronavirus.”

Accompanied by service commanders who are members of the State Task Force on Enforcement of the Ban on Public and Religious Gatherings, Wike said a state committee would be set up to implement the distribution of the foodstuffs.

He said government was prepared to tackle the deadly virus.

“For now, we are not 100 percent ready, but we are about 90 percent ready. Luckily for us, we have no serious cases.  The confirmed  case is doing very well. They have sent her samples and it came out negative.  The final sample has been sent and we are expecting the results.

“We are doing quite well. All members of the security council are working together  to ensure that we prevent the spread of coronavirus”, he stated.

“We inspected where we kept the relief materials for our palliative programme.  Our intention is to ensure that we mitigate the impact of the sit-at-home directive.

“We are going to set up a committee for the distribution of the foodstuffs meant to serve as palliative for Rivers people,” Wike disclosed.

On the monitoring of compliance by churches,  Governor Wike said the task force was happy with the level of cooperation from the churches.

“We are happy with the level of compliance that we have seen throughout Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas. The churches complied.”