LAGOS
Lagos State on Sunday joined several other Nigerian states in deciding to delay going back to school, scheduled for Monday, to strengthen measures to prevent Ebola spread among students and allow them to celebrate Independence Day and the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
"Schools reopen tomorrow but for the purpose of preparing the schools and tidying up loose ends and then instead of having the children resuming and then breaking up for Eid, let the Eid period run and then we start full blast," Governor Babatunde Fashola told reporters following a meeting with teachers and other educational authorities.
He said schools would now resume on October 8.
Nigeria commemorates Independence from Britain on October 1 while the Eid is expected to start on October 4 or 5.
Nigeria, which has a massive Muslim population, often declares a two-day break for the Muslim religious feast.
Teachers nationwide had earlier ruled out school resumption on Monday because of the lack of enough preparation to halt Ebola outbreak in many of the states.
Governor Fashola insisted, however, that Lagos is currently free of the deadly virus.
Lagos recorded Nigeria's first Ebola case when an infected Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, flew into the county and later died of the virus.
Of the total 19 confirmed Ebola cases in the country, at least seven Nigerians have died - all of them have had contact with Sawyer.
The remaining survived the disease. No one is currently under watch for the virus, according to different health authorities in Nigeria.
Lagos neighbors in the southwest - Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and Ondo - have earlier postponed school resumption on the same ground.
The mostly Muslim northern Nigerian states have also shifted school resumption till after the Eid holiday.
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