Damaged FMC isolation centre is for Lassa fever, not COVID-19 ― Kogi govt

The Kogi State government has said that the isolation centre that was damaged by storm a few days ago at the Federal Medical Center in Lokoja was built for Lassa Fever and not COVID-19.

The Hon Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, who disclosed this on Saturday in a press statement, said the isolation centre at the Federal Medical Center was built for the institution by the state government.

According to him, the Federal Medical Center approached the state government to help them put in place an isolation centre where Lassa Fever patients could be kept before their transfer to management centres.

“It was never meant for COVID-19 and it is unfortunate that some falsehood merchants are peddling ridiculous figures around as the cost of the centre. Can the rumor peddlers produce the contract papers or even the evidence of the governor’s statement to that effect?

“The state government has recalled the contractor to come and fix the damaged isolation centre. Storm destroys permanent structures. So it shouldn’t be strange if a temporary isolation centre is affected by storm.

“The desperate rumor and falsehood peddlers even went further to attribute the statement to the executive governor of the state.

“We would have ignored the falsehood but for the concern of friends of the state who want us to set the record straight to erase the erroneous impression.

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“It is perplexing that some people could fall for such cheap falsehood. China, the epicentre of the Virus didn’t even spend that much to construct an isolation centre. Not even Lagos, that is the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria has spent such amount on isolation centres. Kogi doesn’t have such resources and even if we do, they shall be expended on infrastructure and economic expansion programme that have been the hallmarks of the Governor Yahaya Bello administration.

“The State Government is committed to the health perspective of COVID-19 instead of the commercial angle.

He, therefore, called on those sharing the falsehood to reevaluate their rationality and hearken to the need for all men and women of goodwill to come together at this critical time to defeat the virus.

“We expect such sponsored attacks but we never thought they and their sponsors could be so unintelligent. Our isolation centres for COVID-19 are in Fareec Clinic, Lokoja; Confluence Diagnostic Centre, Lokoja and a Clinic donated to us in Ankpa.

“We are prepared for any eventuality. We know those behind the false spins but their cheap blackmail won’t force us to declare we have what we don’t have,” he stated.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE