The New Experience Newspapers Online News Indepth, Analysis and More
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) have deplored the existence of only one coronavirus test centre in the entire South-South geopolitical zone that had no fewer than 50 confirmed cases of the dreaded disease.
PÀNDEF, which had raised a Coronavirus Sensitisation Committee, implored the governors of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta States, making up the BRACED Commission, to collaborate and establish the virus test centres in the region to mitigate its spread.
The forum’s national publicity secretary, Kenneth Robinson, regretted that the “South-South region, which is the hub of oil and gas activities in the country, could still be neglected at a critical time as this.”
He observed that a situation where an economically strategic region with over 30 million Nigerians would still have only one coronavirus test centre located in Edo State months after the first index case in Lagos, was unacceptable.
“It is sad that the Federal Government has not thought it wise to establish more test centres in the South South. We call on the government and the NCDC to quickly ensure that the centres are a bit closer to the states. The distance from Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River to Edo State for testing is too far for only one centre to serve these states,” the spokesman stated.
In his remarks, the chairman of IYC’s transition implement committee, Kennedy Olorogun, said it was “disheartening that the Federal Government has not deemed it necessary to convert the various university teaching hospitals in the Niger Delta to test centres.
He feared that the samples taken all the way to Edo from the other five states could be contaminated on account of distance.
