The Governor Godwin Obaseki led Edo State Government on Wednesday fulfilled its earlier threats of barring civil servants without proof of COVID-19 vaccination entry into their offices within the secretariat.

True to the government’s warning, workers at the state secretariat and the 18 local government areas in the state were met with a notice asking them to show proof of their vaccinations.

announcement by the State Government on Tuesday that it will begin enforcing the ‘no-vaccination-no-work’ policy.

“We have trained special teams and these special teams will be spread across the 18 local governments of Edo State.

What we are going to do tomorrow is to allow those who have the authentic vaccination card, access to their government working places and those without, can go back and work from home and government will know how to deal with that,” the Head of the COVID-19 Enforcement Team in the state, Haruna Yusuf, said at a briefing on Tuesday.

This comes amid speculations that the state government is working towards making vaccination compulsory for all residents.

However, Governor Godwin Obaseki in a statement last week described the reports as an “obvious misconception”.

He had given residents up to the second week of September to get a vaccine or risk being barred from public places such as banks, receptions, churches and mosques.

So far, Edo State has recorded 6,008 COVID-19 cases.

It has also recorded the second-highest death toll in the country (215) – justifying talks about the ‘compulsory vaccination’, as part of measures to curb the spread of the virus.