The COVID-19 test for members and staff at the assembly followed the discovery of a second confirmed case of the pandemic in the complex.

The speaker, Mr Francis Okiye, who made the announcement during plenary, said that the disease was spreading at an alarming rate in all the communities in the state.

According to him, the spread of COVID-19 has gone into all the communities and the Edo State House of Assembly is one of such places in the state.

“We now have a second confirmed case in the Assembly, against this backdrop, members and staff, including the press is by this notice, mandated to undertake the compulsory test for the COVID-19.

“We must all come to terms with the reality on ground that the disease is real and it is in our midst. The disease is not a death sentence,” he said.

Okiye, however, appealed to members and staff to make themselves available for the test as the house would require a healthy workforce to carry on with its statutory legislative duties.

Meanwhile, a bill for a law to establish the Edo State Mortgage Agency and Regulate Mortgage Creation, Foreclosure and Enforcement of Mortgage in Real Estate was given its first reading.

According to the speaker, the resumption of plenary will be communicated to the public by the clerk of the house.