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 pretence of conducting training to test cases.
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.
