Coronavirus: Where Are The Chinese Doctors? PDP Asks APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government to disclose the whereabouts of doctors brought from China to combat the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19).

Naija News recalls that the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire had last Thursday noted that the government was not keeping a close tab on the movement and activities of the Chinese medical team that arrived in the country on 8th April, 2020.

He said the federal government has no responsibility to tell the whereabouts of the Chinese medics who came into Nigeria at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in the country as they were not invited by Nigeria.

He added that the Chinese team were not guests of the government but were staff members of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) who came into Nigeria on a company visa.

This online news platform recalls the medical team were isolated and quarantined at an undisclosed location for 14-days upon their arrival in Nigeria and all tested negative to the coronavirus as confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Reacting in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP accused the APC government of betraying public trust over its refusal to disclose the Chinese medics whereabouts.

According to the party, the situation has heightened fears of conspiracies by certain unpatriotic interests in the ruling APC to compromise the health architecture of the nation and expose its citizens to danger.

The party stated that its position is based on the alarming declaration by Dr Osagie Ehanire that he cannot account for the whereabouts of the Chinese team, who were brought into the country from the epicentre of the pandemic, despite repeated warnings and disapprovals by Nigeria’s medical experts and professional bodies.

The PDP said “More so, 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 main opposition party recalled how officials of the APC-led administration had strongly defended the invitation of the Chinese team and offered them full state protocol upon arrival, only to turn around to disclaim the supposed experts, deny involvement with them and even forbid Nigerians from inquiring about their whereabouts.

The PDP described as suspicious and weird the notion that the minister of health, who had repeatedly assured that the Chinese were brought to render medical services and training, went personally to receive them at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on April 8, 2020, in a publicized event, can no longer account for the team.