Residents of Mararaba, an Abuja suburb located in Nasarawa State have defied the stay-at-home and social distancing order by the state government.
For them it was business as usual.
The markets were open on Thursday and buying and selling was at frenetic pace in the various markets.
At markets in One-man village, Uke, Masaka and Autabaleefi, buying and selling went on without checks, NAN reports.
Major streets such as Ado, Tafawa Balewa, Medical centre, Total, Gold and Akwa were a beehive of activities as residents walked around.
Mr Abbas Adeyemi, a trader, noted that if care was not taken and there was outbreak in Mararaba, the coronavirus pandemic could be difficult to tame.
He said the most effective measure is when people have behavioural change.
Adeyemi said this was the time for politicians to commence door-to-door campaign on the need for people to adhere strictly to all the precautionary measures of COVID-19.
He said that something urgent needed to be done so that the purpose of containing the spread of the virus by restricting public gathering and maintaining social distance would not be defeated.
Mallam Khalifa Abdullahi, a person living with disability, said that there was no way he could stay at home.
He said that efforts by government to tame the spread of COVID-19 was laudable, but it was not easy to ask people to stay at home without making provisions for them.
He said that without including people with disabilities and the vulnerable in government palliative programmes, ensuring strict adherence to the restriction cannot work.
“People in my category are seriously affected; if we don’t beg, we cannot eat or live and now there is lockdown order without provision for us.
“Who is going to take care of my family in feeding them and medical care and others in my categories?” he said.
Outside the rebellious enclave, the security men mounted checkpoints at Nyanya, the boundary between Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Security personnel made efforts to ensure that motorists heading to and from the FCT complied with the preventive measures put in place to check the pandemic.
Medical personnel were also seen checking people’s temperature, while the security officers were regulating vehicular movements.
One of the medical officers said the check has become imperative to detect any one with high temperature, that needs further testing and treatment.
The officer said that doctors and other needed equipment, which included ambulances were on standby.
A commercial driver, Mr Dona Azubike, said: “It is not clear if Nasarawa Government is serious in enforcing the lockdown because the population in Mararaba alone is alarming.
“There is little the security personnel can do because the people outnumbered them.”
NAN