President Muhammadu Buhari this evening extended the lockdown of Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja by another two weeks in a further effort to check the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.

He announced the extension during a 7pm nationwide broadcast to mark the end of the initial lockdown that started from March 29.

Buhari restated the objectives of the lockdown, which is “to safeguard lives”.

He expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance with lockdown restrictions, noting that it “has generally been good”. He thanked Nigerians for their sacrifices.

“As a result of the support and cooperation, we were able to achieve a lot.

“Today, we have identified 92 percent of our traceable contacts and doubled our testing capacities,” Buhari said.

He assured that “as a nation we are on the right track to winning the war against COVID-19” but stressed the need to extend the lockdown in view of the rising cases of COVID-19 and death in Nigeria and internationally, which he described as “alarming”.

The President appealed to all Nigerians “to take responsibility” by observing personal hygiene while avoiding large gatherings and observing social distancing.