PDP Gives FG 48-Hour To Declare Chinese Doctors’ Whereabouts

Chinese doctors in Nigeria

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has given the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government a 48-hour ultimatum to declare the whereabouts of the Chinese medical team it brought in purportedly to assist in the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The party said its position was predicated on the alarming declaration by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, that he could not account for the whereabouts of the Chinese team, who were brought into the country from the epicentre of the pandemic, despite repeated warnings and disapproval by the Nigerian medical experts and professional bodies.

The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “The minister’s statement had heightened apprehensions in the public space that the Chinese team, whose identity and activities have been shrouded in secrecy, might have been brought in by a certain cabal for another purpose outside the general public good.”

The party described as suspicious, creepy and weird that the minister of health, who had repeatedly assured that the Chinese were brought to render medical services and training and even went personally to receive them at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, on April 8, 2020, in an elaborately publicised event, could no longer account for the team.

The PDP recalled how officials of the APC administration had vehemently defended the invitation of the Chinese team and offered them full state protocol on arrival, only to now turn around to disclaim the supposed experts, deny involvement with them and even forbid Nigerians from enquiring about their whereabouts.

“Our party is worried that the APC-led federal government is being economical with the truth, with its officials playing politics with the lives of our citizens and health safety of our nation,” the party said. The PDP said: “Government’s inability to account for the Chinese team amounts to direct betrayal of public trust, which has heightened fears of conspiracies by certain unpatriotic interests in the APC and its administration to compromise the health architecture of our nation and expose our citizens to danger.

“Nigerians can recall how the Federal Government had failed to respond to demands by our party and other well-meaning Nigerians for the particulars of the members of the team, their medical status, scope of operation, detailed itinerary within our country as well as the safety of the equipment they brought into our nation.