The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to provide N15 billion intervention funds to every state in the country to tackle the dreaded coronavirus pandemic.
It also summoned the Secretary to Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire and the Director-General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, to appear before the House at plenary on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, to brief it on government’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and its template for the intervention in all the states of the Federation.
The House urged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency and priority scale up the nation’s Covid-19 testing capacity
the NCDC should adopt creatively proactive modern approaches and technologies in the management of Covid-19 Pandemic.
It further called for investigation of the immediate and remote causes of the unexplained large number of deaths in Kano State
The House also mandated it relevant Committees to interface with the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19.
The House reached these resolutions at plenary, following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance on Covid-19, sponsored by the Leader of the House, Alhassan Doguwa.
Presenting the motion, Doguwa said the House had noted that index Covid-19 case was recorded in February 27, 2020, and was aware that the country has so far recorded 1,337 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 40 deaths and 255 recoveries.
According to him, the House was equally mindful that the Federal Government had released the sum of N5 billion to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC, to scale up capacity and strategize a rapid response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Majority Leader said the House was worried by the rising spate of unexplained deaths in Kano State in recent weeks, where 77 Covid-19 cases and one death have been recorded in less than two weeks.
