News
COVID-19: Cross River accuses FG of sinister motives
The Cross River State government has accused the Federal Government of Nigeria of plotting to violate its COVID-19 free status by shipping positive and negative test kits and cartridges to Nigeria Navy Reference Hospital in Calabar.
The Commissioner for Information, Asu Okang and the Commissioner for Health, Dr Beta Edu, who doubles as chairman of the COVID-19 response team, said the move by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Centre Diseases for Control (NCDC) was unacceptable and suspicious.
According to Okang in a statement on Thursday, the Cross River State government will resist any attempt to inflict on the state, the COVID-19 index case through the pretense of conducting training to test cases.
Read also: COVID-19: Cross River set to reopen schools, distribute PPE to students
She said; “We wonder why the federal government and NCDC should use the Navy hospital and not the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, or other open federal facilities for the training.
“The navy should also resist attempts to be used to transmit the virus to the people of the state, as they already had a case of land grabbing, which had strained the relationship with the state government,” Okang added.
This came after the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Cross River Chapter, on Saturday urged the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to critically appraise the state’s COVID-19 status.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Dr. Agam Ayuk, and Secretary, Dr. Ezoke Epoke, the association also called on the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other stakeholders to look at the issue.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...