Political mass gatherings serve as super-spreaders events for the propagation of COVID-19 infection in our communities. Such events must be carefully controlled to ensure maximum public safety in terms of risk of transmitting the infection among the vulnerable population.

The PSC wishes to reiterate the significance of the publicized INEC policy on the conduct of political events and the Code of Conduct for Voters and Political Parties within the context of COVID-19.

The PSC, therefore, cautions all political parties to institute public health and social measures in all locations where political events will occur. These measures include:

Mandatory use of face masks for everyone attending these political events. Persons without face masks should not be allowed access to the venues

Hand hygiene facilities including soap and water/ hand sanitizers should be made available for people before gaining access to the venues

Enclosed venues should be adequately ventilated and must not exceed 50% of venue capacity (minimum of 2 meters should be observed among people at the gathering).

If essential, multiple locations or time-slotting should be used with appropriate numbers of people to enable adequate physical distancing in each gathering per time.

“The PSC calls upon all Political Parties, INEC and SIECs to ensure and enforce compliance to the extent possible of these provisions and other safety measures to protect the Nigerian population,” the statement signed Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Chairman Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, said.

-August 02, 2021, 12:57 GMT|