Anthonia Duru
Legal luminary, Mr. Femi Falana SAN has urged the Federal Government to investigate the death of the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari, insisting that no private hospital was accredited by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to treat Coronavirus patients.
Falana said this in a statement, on Sunday, noting that the greatest tribute the Presidency could pay to deceased victims of the Coronavirus disease including his late CoS, Mallam Kyari, was for governments at all levels to fix public hospitals.
He said the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria was as a result of official hypocrisy, impunity and the lack of coordination between federal and state governments in the efforts to fight the pandemic in Nigeria.
“From the foregoing, it is indisputable that there is an obvious lack of a coherent COVID-19 policy. This puts to question dangerously the seriousness of the Federal Government in the global fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.
“No doubt, President Buhari has paid glowing tribute to the late Mr Abba Kyari. But the greatest tribute that can be paid to the deceased and the other 18 citizens that have lost their precious lives on account of complications arising from COVID-19 is for the Federal, state and local governments to embark on fixing and equipping public hospitals without any further delay.
“Just last week, the British Prime Minister, Mr. Boris Johnson, who was discharged from a public hospital in London after his treatment for COVID-19, was full of adulation for the National Health Service of his country.
“That should be a sober lesson for members of the ruling class in Nigeria, who usually spend public funds on medical treatment in foreign medical centres,” he said.
Falana also said that Kyari’s burial, was handled with impunity as it was conducted in disregard of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s directive on social distancing.
“While the NCDC has directed anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 to report for treatment in isolation centres for treatment and monitoring former Chief of Staff to the President, the late Mr. Abba Kyari was allowed to be treated in a cardiological centre, a private hospital in Ikoyi, Lagos State.
“Since then, some influential people who tested positive to COVID-19 are said to have insisted on treatment in private hospitals without official authorisation.” added Falana
He urged the NCDC to pay heed to warnings that Nigeria was yet to experience the worst of the pandemic and henceforth operate without bending the rules to satisfy partisan political interests.
