Kogi government not aware of third COVID-19 case

The Kogi government has denied knowledge of a third coronavirus case detected in the state. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced in its daily update that one new case was recorded in the state on Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

However, the state's Commissioner for Health, Saka Haruna, announced in a Facebook post on Thursday, June 4 that the patient is unknown to the state's authorities.

"We are not aware of who the patient is, where and when the test was conducted. No sample sent from KG (Kogi Government)," he said.

Kogi had similarly rejected the first two coronavirus cases which were announced as belonging to the state last week.

The cases were tested at the National Hospital in Abuja, after the patients were moved from Lokoja, Kogi's capital, after showing COVID-19 symptoms.

The state's Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, said during an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, May 28 that the declaration of the cases is fraudulent and fails a major credibility test.

"It's a backdoor declaration laden with a lot of fraud and falsehood.

As a state government, we completely reject such declarations because they do not even conform to the protocol set by the NCDC itself," he said.

Fanwo claimed the cases didn't show any coronavirus symptoms when admitted at the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja.

He said all 13 contacts of the cases, a chief imam and his son, that had been located by the government all tested negative for the novel disease.

Despite the government's denial, Governor Yahaya Bello this week ordered 14-day total lockdown of Kabba-Bunu LGA where the cases were detected.

Nigeria has recorded 11,166 coronavirus cases in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

COVID-19 : NMA calls on Buhari to intervene in Kogi

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to intervene in the refusal of the Kogi State Government to accept the positive test results of coronavirus patients in the State.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had on Wednesday confirmed two COVID-19 cases in the state.

One of the patients, who is reportedly a popular community and religious leader, was referred from the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja and diagnosed with the virus at the National Hospital, Abuja.

But the Kogi State Government rejected the result.

The NMA President, Dr Francis Faduyile, and Secretary General, Dr Odusote Olumuyiwa, in a statement on Friday, said the association was “incredibly disturbed” by the response of the Kogi State Government.

The NMA lamented that the state Commissioner for Information did not only describe the process of arriving at the diagnosis as fraudulent, but allegedly “went on to smear the front-line health workers and the NCDC on live national television.” It said, 

“His use of profane words is capable of demoralising the exemplary gold-winning health workers and the untiring NCDC, which possibly can lead to a national catastrophe. The implied consequences of these unbecoming actions are what the NMA condemns.

The association, therefore, appeals to President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the state governor and his officials immediately.”

Kogi state records first COVID-19 case

Kogi state has joined the list of states with coronavirus cases following the announcement of 389 new cases in Nigeria.

The state recorded its index case three months after the first case was confirmed in Lagos.

The new cases announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC) on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, raised the total number of the outbreak in Nigeria to 8,733.

The NCDC in its daily update also announced the release of 166 more patients, who have successfully recovered from the virus.

According to the agency, the new cases were recorded in 22 states.

As usual, the bulk of the cases were detected in Lagos with 256 more cases. This brings the total of coronavirus cases in Nigeria’s economic capital to 4,012.

In Katsina, 23 more cases were confirmed followed by Edo (22), Rivers (14) and Kano (13)

While 11 cases were recorded in Adamawa and Akwa Ibom, seven were detected in Kaduna and six each in Kwara and Nasarawa state.

In Gombe, Plateau, Abia, Delta, Benue, Niger, Kogi, and Oyo state, two cases each were recorded while one each was confirmed in Imo, Borno, Ogun and Anambra.

The NCDC’s updates on Wednesday also showed that five deaths were recorded and that brought the total of coronavirus fatalities in Nigeria to 254.

Also, a total of 2,501 patients have recovered from coronavirus in Nigeria following the announcement of 116 recovery cases on Wednesday.

With Kogi recording its index cases, Cross River is now the only state where a case of the pandemic has not been confirmed.

CBN, others donate medical equipment to Kogi

The private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 said it had donated health equipment worth millions of naira to a new isolation centre established in Lokoja by the Kogi State Government.

CACOVID said the donation of the equipment was a joint initiative between the Central Bank of Nigeria and the leaderships of other private sector groups in the country.

It said in a statement that the presentation of the equipment was done by a representative, Mr Toyin Idowu, alongside the inauguration of the new isolation centre by the state government.

Idowu explained that the gesture was aimed at joining hands with the federal and state governments to rid the country of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the United Bank for Africa Plc announced on Sunday that the President of Senegal, Macky Sall; the President of Liberia, George Weah, and US Senator Chris Coons would form part of a high-level leadership panel to discuss Africa’s economic recovery in the 2020 edition of UBA’s Africa Conversations.

The bank said the discussion, which would be held online on Monday, would be moderated by its Chairman and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu.

According to a statement issued by the bank, the second edition of the symposium organised annually by UBA is in celebration of Africa Day.

The Kogi state governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Yahaya Bello as Kogi state governor. Bello was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC ) in the November 16, 2019 poll in Kogi State. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Musa Wada, had petitioned the state election tribunal, challenging Yahaya's election. They alleged that the election was characterized by irregularities, violence, ballot snatching and stuffing, and non-compliance with the electoral act, constitution and INEC’s guideline for governorship elections. The tribunal in its ruling delivered on May 23, struck out the petition for lack of substantial evidence by the opposition.

Kogi and Cross River States have conducted the least number of coronavirus tests

Kogi State and Cross River State have conducted the least number of coronavirus tests across Nigeria nearly three months after the country recorded its index case.

Nigeria has recorded a total of 6,175 coronavirus cases in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, as of May 18, 2020.

Kogi and Cross River are the only two states in the country yet to record cases, but authorities have expressed fears that it might be because the governments of both states are not taking the outbreak seriously enough.

The latest situation report published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday, May 19 has now shown that the two have barely tested enough.

Of the 35,983 tests done across the country, as of May 17, Kogi has only conducted one, while Cross River has conducted seven, the two lowest of any other state.

Yobe, the state which has conducted the third least number of tests, has conducted 50, with 32 of them returning positive results..
Lagos has conducted the highest number of tests with 14,886 which has returned 2,550 positive results, the highest of any state in the country.

The FCT has conducted the second highest number of tests with 4,688 tests (418 positive), followed by Kano with 2653 (825 positive).