The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, has denied proposing a national lockdown to tackle COVID-19 in the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had announced a lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and FCT for initial two weeks which was also extended by another two weeks.
But Aliyu on Wednesday in Abuja, at the 17th joint national briefing of the PTF on COVID-19, said such statement on a national lockdown did not emanate from him.
“My attention has been drawn to a fake task force media statement, which was said to be signed by me, talking about a proposed complete lockdown of the country.
“Not only did the statement patently failed, it was badly written.
“It is unfortunate that a small number of persons continued to engage mischief making at such a serious time when we are talking about coronavirus infection,” he said.
Aliyu insisted that the task force had not released any official statement on a complete lockdown.
He said he would rather refer to the SGF’s speech of Tuesday, on submitting formal findings to Mr. President, and which is yet to happen.
He said: “I request that the public and the media take caution in circulating or publishing unverified news. To be very clear, all formal statements on th emergency response are made through this daily press briefing or through official press statements.
“l will also like to applaud all those patients of COVID-19 who are now sharing the experiences on their own volition. This step is extremely harmful, encountering the wrong signal around COVID-19 infection.
“When we stigmatise persons, when we discriminate against them, when we scold people, what happens is that they go into hiding at a time when they need help and support and it makes our job more difficult.