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Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government has described as fake news, reports that one of the Chinese experts that came into the country to help share knowledge of coronavirus has tested positive for the disease.
It has also described as untrue, speculations that senators and House of Representatives members were given between N500 million and N700 million to share as COVID-19 palliatives to their constituencies.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed debunked the rumours at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 on Wednesday.
According to him, “We are trying to contain coronavirus; a lot of energy is also being expended in fighting fake news.
“To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware that any such money has been given to members of the National Assembly. But I know that fake news is not abating.
“This morning, there was a message that went viral to the effect that one of the Chinese doctors had tested positive. That news was said to have emanated from the tweeter handle of the federal government; I want to say to the best of my knowledge here that there is no such thing.
“I have also received two fake dramas and other fake news while I was sitting down here which I have been unable to open.
“But I mean we will continue to always debunk fake news and we try our best to timeously give you information about COVID-19 either through our daily briefing or through the website of NCDC and the task force.”
Meanwhile, the task force on COVID-19 pandemic has said it had agreed with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) to jointly develop strategies to combat the pandemic in the country.
National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, revealed at the briefing that one of the strategies was to improve on coordination and synergy between the federal and state governments.
He also said that the state governors agreed to collaborate with the task force, the private sector to invest in providing a more sustainable arrangement for the post-COVID-19 era in the healthcare sector.
Aliyu also commended the state governors, as well as other organisations and private individuals who had supported the Nigeria response efforts against the pandemic.
He said: “I will also like to thank state governors; today we had a meeting with the Nigerian Governors Forum and it was a very productive meeting. We all agreed that we need to improve coordination and synergy between the federal and state governments. We need to provide a simple message to our communities on the need to protect themselves.
“We have also agreed to have more effective logistics, to identify assets within states that can be used for the purpose of the pandemic and to also work closely with the private sector to provide a more sustainable arrangement for the health sector in the future, as we emerge from this pandemic.
“I’ll like to start by appreciating our partners, individuals and private organisations that have continued to provide support for the response. I’ll like to, in particular, name NEMA for helping us with ambulances.
“INEC, NIMASA, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the Federal Ministry of Communications, National Orientation Agency, the Nigeria Economic Summit Group and others too numerous to mention.
“I’ll like to applaud in particular, the synergy of federal government agencies as we continue to work together, long hours away from families, away from friends, in order to get on top of this epidemic.
“Finally, I’ll like to mention those that have been diagnosed positive for COVID-19 and send out this message – this message of hope in these dark times. We must not despair; we must keep hope alive at a time of difficulty and we must emerge stronger, but we can only do so if we continue to work together,” he said.
On the use of schools as isolation centres, he said there would be processes in place to ensure that such schools are cleaned after its use so that it could continue with their normal functions after the pandemic must have been over.
