NCDC Officials Leave Kogi After Gov Bello Orders Isolation, Test

• "We Are Under Pressure to Announce False COVID-19 Cases"

There was drama in Kogi as officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reportedly left Kogi State after allegedly refusing to be tested for COVID-19.

The delegation was sent to the State on Thursday to boost the State’s capacity in the fight against the pandemic. However, they returned to Abuja, after Governor Yahaya Bello asked them to go into isolation and prepare to be tested.

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In a statement, Kogi Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, wondered if NCDC was hiding anything.

“So NCDC will have a lot to explain as to why its officials refused to test for COVID-19. How can we be sure of their status? What are their fears? Why did NCDC send people who are afraid of tests to our State? What was their intention?

“The officials that came have done an integrity blow to the works of the NCDC. Is there something they are hiding? It is high time NCDC opened up and apologized to the good people of Kogi State. How will they encourage people to test when their own officials are afraid of test? This is sad,” part of the statement read.

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Kogi and Cross River States are the only two Nigerian States without confirmed cases of coronavirus. Kogi state had been under scrutiny for consistently declaring zero infection by the virus, despite its proximity to Abuja, which also has a high number of infections.

This prompted the Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Haruna, to declare that the state is under pressure to declare that it has COVID-19 cases where there is none. The commissioner made the claims in a statement on Thursday. He, however, said the state would not succumb to the pressure.

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The statement followed a report, which claimed that four persons suspected to be COVID-19 patients had died at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja in the last one week. He said that as the state commissioner for health, a member of the Governing Board of the FMC Lokoja, and also the incident manager for COVID-19 in the state, he had yet to be informed of any claimed cases.

“There is also a representative of the FMC Lokoja in the state’s squadron against COVID-19 /Lassa fever and never for once was any such case raised in our meetings.

The commissioner alleged that the aim of those putting pressure on the state was to politicise the situation as they are not happy that the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health care.

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He added, “First and foremost, it is imperative that the public realise that there is no state government that can deliberately put her people in harm’s way for whatever political reason and the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health. We have and will continue to put the health of our people as first priority.

“We have been in an annual fight against Lassa fever as the state is located in the Lassa fever belt, recording several cases with regrettable losses. We were first to establish a Biosafety Laboratory for Lassa fever in Nigeria and this year alone we have confirmed 30 cases of Lassa fever that was duly announced. To accuse the state of a cover-up of COVID-19 cases is mischievous and at best politically inclined.”

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