The Kogi state government has told the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that it is not hiding any Coronavirus (COVID-19) case.
Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, made this known in a statement sent to POLITICS NIGERIA on Wednesday.
He was reacting to a comment made by the NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu, that all the states in the country will be infected by the virus.
According to Fanwo, the state has religiously followed all the NCDC and World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 guidelines in order to prevent the spread of the infection and also identify cases.
He said Governor Yahaya Bello is worried that the NCDC is expressing doubt in the state’s efficacy to prevent the outbreak in the Northcentral state.
According to the commissioner, the state government is also alarmed that the NCDC is denouncing it for following its own guidelines.
The statement read: “We have also adhered strictly to the various guidelines from, and directives of, the federal government, customised to improve both efficiency and efficacy within the peculiarities of our own circumstances.
“While we are not surprised that they have worked for us so far in keeping our state COVID-19 free, we do find it disconcerting that the lead agency in the fight is possibly expressing doubt in their efficacy while simultaneously denouncing us for following her own guidelines.
“In fact, we built our self-assessment app hosted at kogicovid19.gov.ng around the NCDC’s checklist for ‘suspected and high risk’ cases and as at last week it has been visited nearly 200,000 times with over 14,000 completed self-assessments out of which only about 60 presented cause for further investigation which then failed to meet the COVID-19 spectrum.”
It added, “We sincerely hope the NCDC and Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu will quickly come out to repudiate or retract those dangerous comments (whichever is applicable) in order to minimise damage to the mutuality of trust and cooperation which we need to continue working together through this pandemic.”
