“Proliferation of COVID-19 test centers will end repeated sufferings from Lock downs” – APC Chieftain task Buhari, State Governors

A Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Hon. Bello Bina has called for the proliferation and establishment of Covid-19 test centres in all the 774 local government areas of the country to easily determine health status of every Nigerians and put an end to the sufferings being experienced due to repeated lock downs in most parts of the Country.

According to Bina, though the Federal Government had done well with the inauguration Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 which were replicated at the State level, the establishment of COVID-19 test centres will easily allow Nigerians access the facility and confirm their health status and make themselves easily available for isolation and treatment without the present hullabaloo over lock downs..

Hon. Bello Bina, who was also a one-time Caretaker Chairman of the Brass Local Government Council area of Bayelsa, while speaking with NAIJA LIVE TV in Yenagoa, said the efforts so far taken by the Federal Government is commendable and necessary to contain the pandemic,”there is the need to ease the pains of Nigerians by taking the test closer to them with the establishment of test centre and end the issue of repeated lock downs and destruction of their livelihood.”

Hon Bello, while commending the efforts of the Federal Government so far in containing the pandemic in one of the recordings made available to our correspondent also emphatically stated that the continuous lockdown of the Nation has had a devastating effect on the economy in the light of the recent drop in the price of crude oil in the world market which has brought about untold hardship, starvation and hunger amongst the citizens of our great Nation. In a bid to ameliorate this hardship Hon Bello proffered a workable solution by emphasising creating more testing centers in the various states and alluded same to pool units created during elections to achieve that mass testing that would ultimately identify all Nigerians who are positive in a concerted bid to defeat the pandemic in no distant future.

He said “ The unveiling scenario within the country is that the poor people are wallowing in hunger while the rich are scared of the Coronavirus pandemic. How can the rich be scared of the virus while the poor battle and wallow in hunger? I can beat my chest to posit that if it were only the ordinary citizens that are being inflicted by the Coronavirus, the issue of lockdown wouldn’t have arisen and the rich and especially the political elites would have done everything within their influence/powers to ensure that the virus does not affect them”

“ But the truth is that corona virus is an equalizer and does not know the difference between the rich and the poor and out of the fear of being victims they have declared a lockdown which is now hitting hard more on the poor. “Turn the health sector into INEC, and every citizen of Nigeria as voters. Since we can vote for political office holders in just a day, let us in the same vein conduct a compulsory COVID-19 test for every Nigerian with same zeal and seriousness to determine in good time the status of citizens in a bid to forge the way for a timely resolution of this pandemic and open the economy for business in phases for quick stabilisation. It is doable with the right will, zeal and cooperation from all Nigerians with commensurate cooperation from the Government in terms of its social and welfare responsibilities to the citizens”.

“As I speak people have started producing fake stuff based on the fact the supply of essentials in terms of production cannot meet demands from Nigerians. So most essential requirements to curb the rate of the pandemic i.e sanitizers are being adulterated resulting in sector collapse”.

On the ongoing controversy over the alleged poor leadership role of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva in the State chapter of the party, Hon Bello Bina, expressed concern over the show of ineptitude by the former Governor of the State,” In fact the President was magnanimous enough to make our leader from Bayelsa State the Minister for State Petroleum to which we are very grateful. But the big question begging for answer is “

“What impact has he made to Bayelsa as a State? Who are the people benefiting from him? How many sons of the state has he empowered? I am emphatically saying without any equivocation, that no son of Niger Delta in general or Bayelsa state in particular has or is benefiting from him. So what is the essence of Bayelsans having the slot of Minister for State Petroleum when he has totally alienated himself from his people? It is just as good as not having him at all”

He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the Nine States of the Niger Delta region feel the impact of his administration’s palliative measures during this Covid-19 pandemic,” Look at the price of oil which is the mainstay of our economy and how same has plunged to an unprecedented low. And we from Niger Delta that lay the golden egg are not benefiting from it after our people have over the years suffered environmental degradation and pollution without adequate compensation from the oil giants operation in the region”.

“This is sad. Now this lockdown is affecting the entire nation and has negatively impacted more on we from the Niger Delta in particular. The downside is that we are not getting commensurate benefits from the exploration and exploitation of our natural resources. The derivation or the constitutionally allocated 13% is not enough even in the light of the interventionist agencies like the NDDC setup to address these anomalies. We do not know what they have been doing with the monies injected into the region over the years”

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