Nigeria Police Force has withdrawn an order restricting the movement of essential workers during the coronavirus curfew.
In a tweet on Tuesday night, police authorities said essential workers can now go about their essential duties even during the curfew imposed from 8pm to 6am.
“All essential workers including Medical Personnel, Firefighters, Ambulance Services, Journalists, etc are exempted from the restriction of movement associated with both the partial lockdown and the national curfew across the Federation,” the police tweeted.
This comes after several essential workers, including journalists and health workers, were harassed by police officers for moving during the curfew.
According to security officials enforcing the order, health workers and journalists were not allowed to move after 8 pm.
At least two staff of The Guardian were harrassed, intimidated and almost bundled into the Taskforce vehicle at about 10:55 pm on their way home on Friday.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in April ordered a “gradual easing” of coronavirus-related lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun.
Buhari, therefore, ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks.
But after two weeks of the curfew the Nigerian government says Nigeria is not ready for total lifting of lockdown, hence the first level of easing will be in place for the next two weeks.
Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the federal government, announced the extension on Monday.
