In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the guidelines issued by WHO, we would like to keep you abreast of the measures Aluko & Oyebode is taking to ensure the safety of our staff, clients and work environment.
Part of the major measures taken by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Lagos State Government, include:
- Restricting entry into Nigeria for travellers from the following fifteen (15) countries: Austria, China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America;
- All persons arriving into Nigeria who might have visited these countries fifteen days prior to their arrival in Nigeria, will be subjected to supervised self-isolation and testing for 14 days;
- Only Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos will be opened and available to accept international flights;
- Any gatherings in Lagos State that consist of more than 20 people have been suspended effective immediately;
- Advising all Nigerian citizens to cancel or postpone all non-essential international travel, whether for business or pleasure, especially to “high-risk countries”, while all official international trips for public officials and civil servants are banned until further notice;
- All persons are urged to maintain social distancing and to avoid crowded places; and
- All tertiary, secondary and primary schools in Nigeria have been closed.
Further to these measures announced by the Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus (Covid-19), and in keeping with the mandate to protect our greatest assets, “our People”, we have activated several measures, to ensure the safety and well-being, of our people, clients, their families and the communities in which we live and work.
Whilst we will remain open to provide legal support to our clients, we will be working remotely from Tuesday, 24 March 2020 and we will reduce physical meetings to a minimum. We ask you to help us by choosing to meet remotely via video or telephone conferencing and to avoid physical meetings. However, where physical meetings are essential, we will be observing social distancing guidelines.
After many years of investment in technology we are set up to operate remotely and in the event that we encounter situations that cause varying degrees of disruption to normal business, we have a well-developed Business Continuity Plan (BCP) which ensures that we will be able to continue to deliver the same quality of service to our clients.
We will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds while we encourage staff, clients and their families to comply with all WHO and governmental advice on the Covid-19 pandemic. We may modify our response as appropriate and we will advise you of any further developments as the situation evolves.
We have published an Advisory Update on COVID-19, which looks at the most pressing legal, practical and operational issues that businesses may face and what employers need to be mindful of and what they can do to protect their employees and business. Should you have any enquiries or questions or there are any issues that you would like us to cover in more detail please let us know. Send us an email at ao@aluko-oyebode.com. All our partners and lawyers across our offices always remain available to you.
Please take care as we all face these challenging times together.
