The Abia State government has threatened to ban trucks carrying cattle and cement from entering the State, as well as close livestock markets operated by people that disregard measures fashioned out to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
This was announced by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Chris Ezem, who is also the chairman of the state’s inter-ministerial committee on COVID-19, during his committee’s meeting with the leadership of Abia North communities.
He condemned the reported practice of youths from the North sneaking into the State in trucks conveying livestock and cement, as well as non-compliance with safety measures.
Describing them as acts of sabotage, Ezem added: “We are worried that despite repeated warnings, there were still reports of northern youths being stowed away in cattle and cement trucks bound for our states and its neighbours.”
The SSG urged Northerners to stop inviting their kinsmen to Abia, stressing that doing so is against the inter-state movement restriction imposed by the Federal government nationwide.
Leader of the Northern communities, Alhaji Yaro Danladi, and Chief Imam of Aba, Alhaji Idris Bashir, promised to abide by the COVID- 19 preventive guidelines.
Meanwhile, Akwa Ibom State had last week banned the importation of livestock from other states. It also shut livestock markets in the State following discovery that idle youths from the northern parts of the country sneak into the State under the concealment of livestock trucks.