Lorine Emenike
Port Harcourt residents have reacted to the state government pronouncement of the commencement of the lockdown which began from 8 pm on Sunday till further notice.
According to the state’s commissioner of Information and Communication, Paulinus Nsirim, the areas to be on total lockdown are Port Harcourt and Obio Akpor local government areas.
But reacting to the lockdown, Mr Ejindu said “People have no money, it is only those that have money that can go for shopping and the little time given to them to shop, they can not use it to generate money, so people are sitting at their homes hungry, complaining and sick, some cannot even afford medicare to treat themselves and we are going into the second phase of the lockdown”
On his part, Madam Juliet said “The preparation as well is not like that of the previous one. Formerly, people have already spent all that they had and there is no money. As a businesswoman, there is no market, people are not coming out to buy things as they were before”
Also, Mr Maxwell said “The covid-19 lockdown has reunited and ensured love amongst families. Husbands and wives who use to go out early in the morning and return late at night without according their children the needed parental care have in this period of covid-19 lockdown come together as a family”
On his part, Mr Onukube said “We should cooperate with government because the government cannot do it alone. Everything government is doing, is trying to safeguard and protect lives and we too must also contribute our own quota by making sure that we wash our hands, we should maintain social distancing, use alcohol-based hand sanitizers and ensure we wear our face mask whenever we go out, I think if we do this, we are going to overcome covid-19 pandemic”
Another resident who pleaded to be quoted anonymously on said “the government has asked us to stay at home when we are hungry, and there is no food. We can only say so because we have not seen the strong effect of covid-19 and may we not see it. Because it is only the person that is alive0 that can talk of hunger, so we need to cooperate with the government, obey the rules as set out by the government, they are not doing it to punish us, they are doing it to safeguard our lives”
