The African Democratic Congress has asked the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to apologise for deceiving Nigerians as regards the true intention of a Chinese team that arrived the country on April 8, 2020.
Yemi Kolapo, the national secretary of the party, on Sunday said that senior ministers of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet had failed to address the real issues surrounding the whereabouts of a ’15-member Chinese medical team.’
She said the lame explanation by the Federal Government that the 15 Chinese men were guests of the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) and not of the Nigerian government could not close the “untidy” case, even with the follow-up clarification by the CCECC.
She said, “Members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, health workers, and other essential service providers have worked tirelessly in these trying times to mitigate the effect of the dreaded Coronavirus on human lives and on the Nigerian economy and should be supported and encouraged.
“However, the involvement of the frontliners of the anti-coronavirus efforts, in an avoidable misinformation mess, must not be treated with levity or swept under the carpet. Since it is clear that the Buhari administration has exhausted possible face-saving strategies to no avail, in a matter that had been followed by the entire world, a simple apology will reassure Nigerians that we are not being taken for fools.”
Kolapo added, “At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Democratic Congress was at the forefront of calls for support for the APC administration because of our conviction that politicising the crisis would neither benefit citizens nor the economy.
“This Chinese medical team saga is, however, a dent that cannot be straightened with a passing remark, not with the kind of world attention the Federal Government attracted to Nigeria a few hours before the arrival of the doctors turned technicians.”
