The Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku has appealed to the Federal Government to establish at least one testing centre for coronavirus in the state to sufficiently identify victims of the virus.
Though the state at the moment has no active case recorded since May 18, 2020, the governor insists that it is not comfortable to assume so.
He made this known when a delegation from the Code of Conduct Bureau COVID-19 Monitoring team, paid him a courtesy visit at the government house in Jalingo to intimate him on their mission of assessing how donated palliatives by VSF, NEDC, NEMA among several others are distributed to the vulnerable residents of the state.
The governor added that it would be preferable for the state to have a testing centre in order to have accurate data.
“The fact is, if I have a testing centre here, it will be faster and easier to test and get the result, and those affected will be treated or managed.
“I will also be in a position to assess the number of people that are coronavirus positive or otherwise, as well as estimate scientifically,” Ishaku said.
He argued that the situation of the state not having any case is full of doubts because no one has come forward for sample collection and those that have been tested were found negative.
Governor Ishaku further stated that the process involved in taking the samples to Abuja, awaiting the results and returning back to the state is tedious.
“I think we need to do a lot more to reduce the rate of infections, for instance in public places, the FG should look into having automated machines that can screen individuals when entering or exiting public offices”.
On why he has decided to ease the lockdown, the governor noted that though he feels uncomfortable to do so and apart from the forthcoming council polls, residents are also complaining of their inability to get their daily bread for survival.
Earlier in his remark, the leader of the delegation Sa’adu Abubakar, the Federal Commissioner in charge of Northeast, sought the support of the governor to monitor all government interventions.
The interventions to monitor, according to him, include conditional cash transfers, homegrown school feeding programme, distribution of palliatives in response to COVID-19.
Others are donations, distributions and utilization of all forms of support from individuals, public and private organizations as palliatives in response to COVID-19.
Abubakar said the move is to ensure that public officers conform to the highest standard of public morality and accountability.
He also asked for assistance from the state government to link them with schedule officers as well as security operatives for smooth operation.
