PTF has express displeasure with Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Ben Ayade (Cross River) for “not cooperating with the committee on containment of COVID-19.”
A member of the task force said: “These two governors are not doing enough to contain the coronavirus; they are playing politics with it. They have not paid serious attention to the campaign against COVID-19.
“These two governors are also under watch because we won’t allow them to derail our efforts at containing the epidemic. What we are demanding from the governors are concrete steps to stop community spread, not playing to the gallery. Enough of politics with COVID-19.
“Ayade sees the entire COVID-19 epidemic as not real but an attempt to make money.”
The Cross River governor once said: “I think Africans should come together to the realization that it is not vaccines. It is healthy living. Give people jobs. Thabo Mbeki once told the world, ‘don’t tell us about giving us HIV drugs in South Africa. Give us money let us improve our agriculture.’ Let everybody have a job and is working and living healthy. HIV virus will disappear; the same thing with coronavirus.
“It would sound very controversial but you should know that I am talking from a sound intellectual and scientific background.
“The virus itself, the test method itself, the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test method is an unreliable method and is never to be used for diagnostic purpose but genomic sequencing, for just research purposes.
“But the PCR is being used, test kits are being produced. Test kits manufacturers are making cool money. If I test you and you are coronavirus positive, what do I do? There are no vaccines. There is no established approved international treatment protocol.”
It could not be immediately ascertained whether the President may impose lockdown on Rivers and Cross River States.
A highly-placed source said: “We won’t allow the situation in those two states to deteriorate, we are monitoring them closely.”
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), in a recent statement said the President has power to deal with the situation reports in Kogi, Rivers and Cross River States having taken similar measures in Lagos, FCT and Ogun.
Malami said: “Section 3 of the Act enables the President to declare any part of Nigeria as an infected area. Section 4 of the Act further empowers the President to make regulations to prevent the introduction, spread and transmission of any dangerous infectious disease. “Section 6 of the Act requires the President and State Governors to provide sanitary stations, buildings and equipment. Thus, in recognition of the critical roles being played by the state Governors in these trying times, the Federal Government has been working with the states in line with the dictates of Section 6 of the Act,” he said.
“It is important to inform the discerning members of the public that the President did not make a declaration of a state of emergency under Section 305(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which would have required the concurrence of both houses of the national assembly.
“Even at that Section 305(6)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) permits a proclamation of a State of Emergency to run for a period of 10 days without the approval of the National Assembly when the parliament is not in session as in the present situation wherein the National Assembly has shut down.”
