Oyo govt. to begin ‘name and shame’ of COVID-19 guidelines violators

The Oyo State government says it has started community reporting that will name and shame violators of COVID-19 guidelines through the use of Geographical Information System (GIS).

Prof. Olanike Adeyemo, the Chairperson, Oyo State COVID-19 Containment and Decontamination Project, said this in Ibadan on Thursday at a stakeholders’ town hall meeting of residents.

Adeyemo said the reason for bringing the stakeholders together was to impress on them the fact that compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols in the state was below 50 per cent.

“All the stakeholders present are leaders in their own right and we want them to know that they need to exert that influence over their network with a view to ensure compliance of all the preventive measures of COVID-19.

“Gov Seyi Makinde has done what he needs to do for the state. The responsibility now rests on us the citizens to do the needful.

“For a lot of banks with overwhelming crowds the governor is not the one to fix their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) that are not functioning.

“If you go to most banks, you will find out that out of seven ATMs one would be working to serve the people.

“There is a need for stakeholders to be responsible and that is why we are here. We actually extracted commitment from them.

“And not only that, we have a compliance reporter, which is a citizen’s app for self policing. What that will do is that we will know who to hold responsible.

“All the stakeholders must do everything they have to do for us to be safe,” she said.

Also, Mr Mojeed Mogbonjubola, the Deputy Chief of Staff Oyo State, said that the state was in the second phase of the pandemic.

“We are taking people through the second phase whereby people are going to be the one enforcing the strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols by being their brothers’ keeper,” he said.

Mogbonjubola stated further that although the government was not looking at sanctions, it had engaged community reporting through the use of technology.

“There is going to be self assessment; there would be no law enforcement agencies to drive compliance basically,” he said.

Mr David Afolayan, the GIS expert and member of the containment team, said community reporting app would make it possible for citizens to give their feedback and report contravention of COVID-19 guidelines in the state.

“The link is available on the Facebook page of the Oyo State COVID-19 containment network.

“The app is easy to use as it works on phones. There people can report contravention and compliance, as the case may be, in their spheres.

“On the Facebook page and also on the portal we have created the ‘Hall of Fame’ and ‘Hall of Shame’. So for those doing well we will celebrate them and for those not doing well they will be celebrated as well.

“We are already getting feedback across the state and we want everyone to key into this,” he said.

It was reported that some of the stakeholders present were the representatives of Christian Association of Nigeria, Oyo State; representatives of Muslim association, market leaders, park managers, educational organisations, traditional rulers among others.