PDP blasts PTF over COVID-19 second wave handling

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday expressed alarm over what is observed as the manifest lack of commitment and proactiveness by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to check the spate of the second wave of COVID-19 and the escalating deaths arising from the spread of the pandemic in our country.

The main opposition party maintained that it is unpardonable that the lives of Nigerians are increasingly becoming endangered, as citizens’, including prominent Nigerians’ deaths are daily being announced as a result of COVID-19, while the Buhari administration has remained lethargic with no concrete commitment for a solution.

A statement issued by in Abuja by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary said the party is shocked that the Buhari administration did not make any budgetary provision in the 2021 Appropriation for the acquisition of essential therapeutics, including vaccines, even in the face of the heightened anxieties over the second wave of the pandemic in our nation.

The statement added: “It is indeed the height of leadership failure that the Federal Government has not been able to take a decision on the type and quantity of vaccines expected as well as ancillary facilities and associated logistics.

“The PDP is however not surprised at such governance indolence and confusion as the current system under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch is plagued by endemic corruption, mediocrity, incompetence and laissez-faire attitude to issues that have to do with the wellbeing of Nigerians.

“It is on record that the lethargic attitude, for which the Buhari administration has become known, also encouraged the reported diversion of COVID-19 funds and palliatives meant to cushion the effect of the pandemic, leaving Nigerians to survive the last horrendous situation through self-help.

“More distressing is that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has not demonstrated any capacity beyond the mere announcement of figures of infected persons, deaths, recoveries, discharges and issues of local protocols rather than engaging in epidemiology, researches and production of equipment, drugs, therapeutics and other medical palliatives that can help stave off the impact of the global pandemic.

“On account of this, the PDP restates our demands for the dissolution of the PTF and in its place allow a convergence of experts in a special department under the purview of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) to professionally tackle the pandemic.

“Furthermore, our party rejects the use of the pandemic as corruption drainpipe for All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and their cronies in government circles.

“Also, rather than allowing the Minister of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs to carry bundles of cash to the streets, under the guise of palliative measures, as was recorded during the first wave, the PDP demands that the Federal Government should channel such resources directly to the respective state governments to cushion the possible effects of the pandemic on the people.”

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