By Okerinmodun Faith
The panic associated with COVID-19 pandemic is gradually dwindling in the minds of some Nigerians.
Recall that since March, this year, the deadly disease had put the nation on hold with its social, religious and economic affairs paralysed.
To curtail the spread of the virus, the Federal Government alongside with the State Government has rolled out directives that everyone must adhere to. Part of the measures is the compulsory wearing of face mask and observance of social distancing.
At the early hours of Wednesday, AMILOADED carried out some checks on four different Automated Teller Machines (ATM) points in Ibadan, capital of Oyo state. These points include Access Bank at Challenge, Fidelity Bank at Challenge and GTB.
Checks revealed that most of the ATM users sighted violated the social distancing rule while only few of them were on face mask.
A visit to these ATM points showed that none of the ATM users abided with the directives.
At the Fidelity Bank:
While at the Fidelity Bank at Challenge on Friday morning, scores of people were seen thronging the entrance of the bank as most of them have no face mask on. Most of the bank customers and ATM users crowded and did not maintain distance.
While on the queue waiting to receive money, one of the ATM users was heard chanting that one will die one day either it’s corona virus or not.
Following directives that all bank institutions should station hand sanitizers at their bank entrance and ATM points, it was discovered that the bank only has just one terminal point for hand sanitizer and it was placed at the bank entrance but ATM users didn’t have access to them
At First Bank:
While at the First Bank located at Sango Area where The Polythecnic Ibadan is situated, our reporter learnt that the social distance rule and face masking was violated by ATM users.
Despite that the bank officials made demarcations on how users can queue and maintain distance, customers still violated this rule as orderliness was thrown to the winds.
No one cared if the virus is deadly as most of all the users are just in a haste to cash out their money not minding the fact if the earlier user has the virus. As at the time of the visit paid by our reporter, 95% of the users at that bank didn’t wear face mask.
At Access Bank:
A visit to Access Bank at Challenge area, Ibadan, revealed that neither the securities stationed at the ATM point nor the users are used face mask. Everywhere seemed jampacked as everyone just rushed to cash out their money while it turned to survival of the fittest
Market Users
After the pandemic outbreak, different states across the federation ordered a lockdown on all activities. Despite this move, the Oyo state wasn’t on total lockdown but only some few markets were locked down.
Part of the market that wasn’t locked down is the popular Bodija market because eatable and perishable food are been sold there.
Bodija Market
A visit to the market showed that the preventive measures put in place by the health workers were violated.
Almost all the market women were not using the face mask; to them, it was business as usual.
The heavy traffic caused by people in the market is a bad experience as one could easily inhale the breath of another.
Everyone was going with their daily business as usual.
Akilapa Market
Akilapa market is situated at Ogunpa, Dugbe. Despite the directive by the Oyo state Government that all markets must provide sanitizers at every location, checks showed that no single sanitizer was in the market as everyone went about his/her buying and selling as if nothing happened.
The market was congested by different people of different caliber as they all went in and out of the market after purchasing their good. Social distancing is seen to have been highly violated and 10% of both buyers and sellers were seen using face mask while the other 90% are not using face mask.
It should be recalled that ever since the pandemic outbreak, the country has been on standstill affecting different sectors of economy and human relationships.
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