Rivers State Government Spells out Guidelines For Marriages... Defaulters to Pay 10 million Naira

The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Paulinus Nsirim has announced Council's approval of guidelines for marriages during the Covid-19 period. Mr. Nsirim said prospective couples would be required to apply to the State Governor through the Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation. He stressed that such applications must be accompanied with information on the venue of the ceremony, names, addresses and phones numbers of attendees to make contact tracing easy if the need arises. The Commissioner stated that henceforth, those seeking to bury their loved ones would also be expected to include names, addresses and phone numbers of those to attend such funerals in their applications. Mr. Nsirim said government would not grant approval to any application without names, addresses and phone numbers. The Information Commissioner said marriages would not have more than 50 attendees including family members who must wear face masks and adhere strictly to social distancing of not less than two meters. According to him, while church weddings must be conducted between 9am and 12noon, traditional marriages would be conducted between 4pm and 7pm . The Commissioner said venues of marriages must have provisions for running water and soap at three points and the venue decontaminated after the event. Mr. Nsirim said after wedding, receptions are prohibited under the guidelines to reduce the risk of community transmission of COVID-19. He added that violators of the guidelines would be made to pay a fine of 10 million Naira.