COVID-19: "Let us stop this game, Nigerians are suffering"

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has described COVID-19 pandemic response as a game being played by Nigerian politicians.

He stated this on Thursday when members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Lokoja.

The governor said lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus in Nigeria was causing needless suffering to Nigerians.

“Let us stop this game. Nigerians are suffering. Instead of the lockdown with its attendant negative effects on the people, why can’t we turn it into employment opportunities; providing clothes for face masks to be exported to those countries who have the disease?

“Covid-19 is not a new disease in our clime. We have our own way of treating it and that is what we should be exploiting, rather than subjecting our people to hardship, hunger and starvation through lockdown,” Bello said.

The governor described as a lie news that the late Chief Judge of Kogi, Justice Nasir Ajanah died of COVID-19.

He noted that the judge had been managing his health since 2016.

According to him, the complications that eventually led to Justice Ajanah’s death was as a result of his inability to access medical attention due to the lockdown.

Bello said, “We know his medical history; he was my brother. We know we have been managing him since 2016, but this time, he was completely isolated; no one was allowed to even speak to him until he passed away. We cannot afford to be playing games with the lives of Nigerians. This must stop.”