Jos, 01 April, 2020 / 7:24 am (ACI Africa).
The installation of Archbishop Mattew Ishaya Audu as the Local Ordinary of Jos in Nigeria that took place Tuesday, March 31 was witnessed by 50 people in line with the government’s directive to limit public gatherings in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Africa’s most populous nation.
The West African country has recorded 135 cases of COVID-19. Two people have died and eight have recovered from the deadly virus that has claimed the lives of at least 42,114 globally.
“We welcome you the few present here, representing the many others who would have loved to come but the Church had to comply with the good restriction measure adopted by the Government as a proactive way to vigorously fight the coronavirus,” the Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Ayau Kaigama said in his welcoming speech at the beginning of the ceremony.
Archbishop Kaigama who was at the helm of Jos Archdiocese for 19 years since the year 2000 till last November explained that many people had expressed the desire to participate in the ceremony including clergy, religious men and women and the lay faithful.
The directives by the government in view of containing the spread of COVID-19 “has restricted the number of participants to fifty,” the Archbishop of Nigeria’s Abuja Archdiocese clarified
