Just In: Federal Govt Reduces Nationwide Curfew Hours, Orders Full Operation In Financial Sector

Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has reduced the nationwide curfew from 8pm-6am to 10pm–4am, effective from Tuesday, June 2nd.

The National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, announced this on Monday at the daily briefing of the task force in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He said;

Effective from tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, the easing of the lockdown will be characterised by the following: the nationwide curfew will remain in place but the timing of this will be reduced to 10pm-4am. Just to clarify, the purpose of the curfew is to limit social interactions and, therefore, reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.

The Coordinator emphasized that persons who are on essential duty remain exempted from the curfew, as the nation moves into the second phase of the gradual easing of the COVID-19 lockdown.

He stated that essential staff include healthcare and media services providers, and those working in the nation’s critical sectors.

The PTF national coordinator also announced the reopening of the nation’s financial sector for full operations.

Dr Sani Aliyu expressed that;

There will be a full opening of the financial sector, with banks now allowed to operate normal working hours – five days a week. There will be controlled access to markets and locations of economic activities, but local authorities will continue to provide guidance on opening times.

Government offices are to open between 9am – 2pm from Monday to Friday. This is for workers on grade level 14 and above, both in the federal and state civil service.

Furthermore, he said all interstate movements will remain prohibited, but the haulage of goods and essential travels are now permitted.

However, after the briefing of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday, Chairman of the task force, Boss Mustapha, announced that President Buhari said the second phase of the eased lockdown would only be in place for four weeks.