By Myke Uzendu
Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly issue an Executive Order for the provision of free Corona Virus testing kits in all hospitals in Nigeria to contain further spread of the virus.
The Publicity Secretary of the Coalition, Ikenga Ugochinyere in a statement on Sunday, said that the demand has become more urgent in view of the growing spread of the coronavirus infection with a total of 30 identified cases in the country.
The coalition called on President Buhari to give the nation the leadership it thoroughly needs in this time of national crisis by working closely with Parliament and 36 state governors to issue an executive order and backed by Parliament within the next 48hrs for free and mandatory coronavirus testing for all citizens especially those who recently got into the country.
This he said will help to ensure early detection and identification of infected people who have not shown any symptoms of the virus and also make it a lot easier to track all possible contacts of these carriers.
“Let all hospitals be mandated to run free test and let all citizens be encouraged to go for test. An emergency law should be made by Parliament backing free testing/funding like most nations have done and also a law making it an offence for citizens who refuse to run test.
“Part of the one trillion naira released by CBN should be used to fund this process.
“Remember the primary responsibility of government under Section 14 is protection of lives and properties. Get your loyalist in the parliament who passed your borrowing plan for $22.7b foreign loan without debate or seeing the details to pass anti coronavirus virus legislation including free and mandatory testing immediately.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ear marked N1.1 trillion for intervention for Corona Virus in the country, addition to the N200million already donated by the richest African, Aliko Dangote for the mitigate of the pandemic.
