Compulsory COVID-19 Vaccination: Edo Govt vows to crack down on offenders

Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State, Nigeria, has threatened to come heavily on anyone who refused to turn up for the Coronavirus vaccination, describing the restraining order of a Federal High Court, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, stopping compulsory vaccination in the state a mere litigation jamboree.
He vowed to deny unvaccinated persons access to large crowd in the state from the middle of this month.
Governor Obaseki, who reiterated his last Friday’s directive on the issue as sacrosanct, maintained that while nobody would be forced to take the COVID-19 jabs, those who chose not to take the vaccination could as well kiss their attendance of large public gatherings goodbye, as the government would enforce the earlier directive in the overall interest of the people of the state.
He also threatened that the state might be forced to implement a lockdown if there was a failure to follow the directives for vaccination and compliance with the Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention (NPIs) in order to halt the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 which is currently raging within the state.
The governor who stated this in a media briefing at the Government House on Wednesday, said his administration would do everything legally possible to challenge the injunction in the appellate court, stressing that he owed it a responsibility to protect the larger population against a very few, felt no need to take the vaccination.
He hinged his insistence on denial of access to large crowd and public places to unvaccinated persons on the alarming rate the third phase of the Coronavirus is ravaging the state, disclosing that within a spate of two days,one of the front line doctors working with the state’s COVID-19 team, was rendered orphan by the pandemic as the medical personnel lost both parents.
Obaseki added that at best, the court injunction, asking the state government to maintain the status quo was at best, “speculative and preemptive”, as the directive would not become effective until the middle of September.