… Onoyake leads four DPOs to enforce lockdown
By Emeke Alexander
Palpable fear now envelopes the minds of residents of Uvwie Local Government Area in Delta State, following the two new cases of the coronavirus in the state, which credible sources told Real-Time24 reside in the council area.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mordi Ononye, had in a statement on Wednesday disclosed the two new cases which brought the total confirmed cases in the state to six, with one death and five active cases.
Though the Commissioner’s statement gave the location of the two cases to be from Uvwie and Udu Council Areas, further investigations revealed that the case from Udu is actually a female who resides in Uvwie.
Following the development, most residents of Uvwie it was gathered are now coming to terms with the reality of the global pandemic.
The popular Jakpa road and other areas where residents are notorious for flouting the state government’s lockdown and stay-at-home directives, were almost devoid of vehicular and pedestrian movements on Wednesday morning as a result of the two new recorded cases from the area.
Some commercial tricycle riders for fear of contacting the coronavirus were seen wearing nose mask, even when the state government is yet to go ahead with its planned compulsory use of nose mask in the state.
The Jakpa road was also devoid of persons who are taking advantage of the lockdown to jog in the early hours of the morning and those that converge on school fields to play football.
Authorities of the Uvwie Local Government were equally concerned about the two new COVID-19 recorded in the area as the Council Chairman, Mr Ramson Onoyake, on Thursday led the four Divisional Police Officers from Ekpan, Enerhen, Ebrumede and Ugborikoko together with their men to enforce the restriction of movements and curfew imposed by the state government in the local government area.
Real-Time24 gathered that as early as 5am Thursday, Mr Onoyake led the security agents to block Jakpa Junction, Uti Junction, Ovie Palace Road, Airport Junction and other routes leading to the popular Effurun market.
Traders that were trapped in the operation were forced to return home, vehicle owners whose vehicles were impounded had to wait till 6pm Thursday.
Traders mostly women trekked long distances to their destination as tricycles could not operate during the lockdown.
In a chat with newsmen, Mr Onoyake warned that he will close down the Effurun market and other designated markets in the area, if the directives of government were not obeyed.
So far, out of the six confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Delta State, four are alleged to be from Uvwie Local Government Area; raising concerns about the compliance of residents of the area to the measures put out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and directives by the government in containing the spread of the disease.