Wada/Aro Campaign Council Urges PTF/NCDC to Compel Kogi State Government to Abide by COVID-19 Protocol

The Wada/Aro Campaign Council under the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi State November 2019 governorship election is appealing to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to, as a matter of urgency, intervene by directing the governor of Kogi State to approve the collection of blood samples from suspects and send same to Abuja or any testing centre nearer to Lokoja, the State capital.

In a statement sign by the campaign spokesperson, Comrade Usman Okai Austin, the Council is also calling on the State Government to open and equip Testing Centres across the entire State to facilitate easy access. This has become necessary as the Wada/Aro Campaign Council who is concerned about the well-being of Kogites can no longer fold her arms and watch the good people of Kogi State drift into the current situation affecting Kano State.

Speaking on behalf of the Council, her leader, Comrade Austin Okai said  it is on record that Kogi State does not have any functional and effective isolation and testing facility.  He further narrated that in the light of the ugly development, it will be suicidal for the State to continue listening to Yahaya Bello whose preoccupation this period is to engage in body fit exercise at the gym in Lugard House.

The body said it is obvious that the governor has no plans to combat the spread of the virus in the State. "The government has lived in self-denial for too long. The only way to confirm non existence of the virus in the State is by testing citizens," the group stated. The Campaign Council therefore calls on the federal authority to quickly compel Kogi State Government to act proactively to avert the looming danger imminent in the State.

The confluence State which is always on the news for notorious reasons in known for kidnapping, armed banditry, non payment of salaries, electoral violence, outright murder, maladministration, unparalleled corrupt practices and other social vices than other States in the country.

The governor has played to the gallery and remained adamant since the commencement of the campaign to contain COVID-19 in the country. The State government has maintained that it is free from Covid-19 and has relented in efforts to curb the penetration of the deadly virus into the State, even though NCDC feared that the State might not be free from the virus judging from the demographic spread of the virus in the country.

The social media is currently agog over an alleged revelation by unidentified doctor in one of the hospitals in Kogi State who claimed that a patient who died recently in the hospital was allegedly diagnosed with coronavirus. Similarly, there was unconfirmed report of an expatraite in Kogi State suspected to have shown symptoms of the corona virus.  But no action is being taken as a result of the lackadaisical attitude of Kogi State government.