The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Dettol Nigeria have reacted to the arrest of Nollywood popular actress, Funke Akindele.
Operatives of Lagos State Police Command on Sunday arrested Funke Akindele for disregarding government order on the coronavirus lockdown.
The Nollywood actress and her husband Abdulrasheed Bello also known as JJC Skillz had on on Saturday, 4th of April, 2020 organised a birthday party at their home in their Amen Estate, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The party which had a large number of people in attendance, as well as celebrities, was contrary to social distancing measure which the NCDC advised Nigerians to maintain in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
She was heavily attacked by Nigerians all over social media for flouting government directives on total lockdown and ban on large gatherings to flatten the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funke, in a video posted on Sunday evening, however, apologised to Nigerians for the lapse in judgement in sharing the video on social media at the wrong time, thereby sending a wrong message to her followers.
Funke Akindele had recently emphasised the need for proper hygiene as well as social distancing in a coronavirus video campaign sponsored by Dettol Nigeria.
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In its reaction to the arrest of the Nollywood star actress, @DettolNigeria in series of posts on twitter stated that it “does not condone any breach of the guidelines on Covid-19.” The company also noted that Funke Akindele is not a brand ambassador for NCDC.
“We have been made aware through social media that Funke Akindele recently, acting in her personal capacity, had a celebration which is against the caution to the public on social distancing during the covid-19 pandemic.
“The NCDC partnered with Dettol on a public service message to educate our communities about preventive measures against COVID-19. Funke is not a brand ambassador of the NCDC.
“As a responsible organization and brand Dettol does not condone any breach of the guidelines on Covid-19. As an organization, we are concerned at the turn of events.
“We will continue to support NCDC and the Nigerian govt to fight COVID-19”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in its response quoted Dettol Nigeria’s tweet and stated that it has not engaged brand ambassadors as part of its approach against coronavirus. The agency maintained that all Nigerians should practise social distance in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“As an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, NCDC has not engaged brand ambassadors as part of our response to #COVID19
“We continue to emphasise that all Nigerians maintain #socialdistancing to prevent the spread of #COVID19 #StayHomeStaySafe”
