*Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has been a bit cynical of the whole COVID-19 saga in the country
By Roseline Ojiugo
As at 11:44p.m. on Wednesday May 27, 2020, when the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) updated their daily Coronavirus (COVID-19) table, it reported that Kogi State had finally joined the league of COVID-19 states with two patients. But the Kogi State Government today vehemently rejected the two index cases reported by the NCDC. The government insisted that Kogi State is free from COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Saka Haruna Audu, the State’s Commissioner for Health, who personally issued a press statement to that effect on Wednesday described the claim of the NCDC as “a fallacy.”
Haruna said, “Kogi State till this very moment is COVID-19 free. We have developed full testing capacity and have conducted hundreds of tests so far, which have returned negative. We have also continued to insist that we will not be a party to any fictitious COVID-19 claims, which is why we do not recognise any COVID-19 test conducted by any Kogite outside the boundaries of the State except those initiated by us. Any attempt to force us to announce a case of COVID-19 will be vehemently rejected.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Wednesday provided update on its official Twitter handle, where it claimed that two index cases were recorded in Kogi bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 8733.
Should Kogi’s insistence stand, it means Nigeria only has 8731 against what was reported by the NCDC, the centre, which is leading Nigeria war against the highly infectious virus. But as at the time of this report, the figure of positive COVID-19 cases in Nigeria on NCDC’s Twitter handle is still 8733.
