Ebola: Osun bars foreign tourists from festival (How do you enforce it?)

Posted by admin Headlines, Osun, State News Monday, August 18th, 2014

Osun State Government has declared that tourists from outside the state would not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming Osun Osogbo Festival scheduled for Friday.

This, the government said, was part of measures to prevent the spread of Ebola virus to the state.

Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere noted that efforts were being made by the state government to make Osun an Ebola-free state.

Akere, who lamented the high spread of the Ebola virus, stressed the need for traditionalists, especially Osun devotees, to co-operate with the state government in its bid to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

According to him, this year’s Osun Osogbo Festival would be celebrated in low key, but with all traditional rites and sacrifices by the Osun devotees in Osogbo alone.

He explained that the state government had restricted movements of non residents of Osun to the state, saying this would help to prevent the spread of the disease to the state. Akere informed that only traditional worshippers and wellwishers, who were resident in the state, would be allowed to partake in the celebration of the Osun Festival to minimise bodily contacts among the people.

However, Akere stated that the decision of the state government was not to deprive the festival of its usual glamour or keep people away from enjoying the event but to prevent the outbreak of Ebola disease in the state.

-Sunwp_posts