By Ishaya Ibrahim
The council of monarchs of the Ohafia community in Abia State has banned all social gatherings in the domain to avert the spread of the coronavirus.
The monarchs reached the decision on March 25, 2020 after a meeting of the council through a communique signed by the council secretary general, His Royal Majesty Ezieogo Mba Okereke.
“The Council in pursuit of this onerous goal, hereby bans with immediate effect all social activities, burials, send off, traditional marriages, weddings etc involving more than 50 persons in Ohafia until further notice.
“Also suspended until further notice with immediate effect are all meetings, including the Council of Monarchs, Community/ Town Development Union , Age Grades etc involving more than 30 persons.
“All Churches in Ohafia are to hold services in streams of not more than 50 members observing the recommended social distancing of 1.5m in seating arrangement.
“All burials, traditional marriages and other ceremonies already scheduled for and up to Sunday 29th March are to be drastically scaled down or reduced to in-house family affair, observing all the recommended safe practices. Where such an event cannot be cancelled outright, the use of Sanitizers, hand washing and social distancing must be strictly observed.
“The Council of Ohafia Monarchs urges the Federal and State governments to quickly put in place further mechanisms and enforceable laws that will secure and keep the Rural Communities (Our Food Baskets) safe from the virus
“The Council will use “Akpan” authority, Town Criers to begin the Publicity of this directives/ orders. Teaching and demonstrating self hygiene, constant hand washing, clean environment, etc to keep the virus out of the community,’ the statement said.
