COVID-19: Edo state government declares wrong person wanted

From John Mayaki

On Thursday 30th of April, through his social media pages and other communication organs of government, Governor Godwin Obaseki declared one Mrs. Amaka Okoro wanted for refusing treatment and going into hiding with her baby after testing positive to COVID-19 and was already allegedly displaying symptoms of the virus.

For easy identification, or so it seemed at the time, the government attached a picture it claimed to be that of Mrs. Amaka Okoro. It immediately went viral as the people of the state, alongside other Nigerians, aware of the danger an infected person refusing treatment could cause, shared the picture with family and friends, warning them of the danger of associating or coming in contact with the person.

However, in yet another striking error indicative of the poor management of the virus in Edo State by the Obaseki-administration, the attached picture turned out to be that of another person who is neither married nor with a child. She has also not tested positive for the virus.

Miss Amaka Okoro, the innocent victim of the dangerous incompetence of the Obaseki-administration, was alarmed when she saw her picture making the rounds on social media and other platforms as a confirmed case of COVID-19 who went into hiding with her baby. She also started to receive threats from authorities and other bodies who, misled by the information by the Edo state government, sought to take her into custody to prevent a further spread of the virus.

To counter the information, she has now recorded and uploaded a video countering the claims of the government and revealing the previous information in circulation to be false.

Apparently, without doing any due diligence or treating the situation with the seriousness it deserves, agents of the Edo state government merely logged in to Facebook, a social media site, to place a search for ‘Amaka Okoro’, and picked the first picture that appeared on their screen as that of the infected person it was looking for.

The folly of this amateur move is immediately obvious. It is public knowledge that the name ‘Amaka Okoro’ is one common in the Southern/Eastern part of the country and as such, a search on a social platform like Facebook will bring different page results that would need further confirmation and cross-referencing to ascertain the true identity of the wanted person.

This error by the state government has misguided the relevant authorities, as well as members of the public, and put them on a wild goose chase. While they went in search of the wrong person, no thanks to the amateurish error and incompetence of Obaseki and his agents, the real infected person may have further blended into the society, possibly infecting more persons.

In between the time the state government committed the blunder, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, according to the NCDC, has soared from 44 to 52, causing many to worry about the contribution of the state government’s mismanagement and lack of focus to the continuous spike.

While citizens are encouraged to submit themselves for testing and treatment if positive, the lack of organization displayed thus far by the Edo state government and its continuous distraction by political matters and Obaseki’s insistence on campaigning for another term amid a public health crisis trigger genuine concern that crucial measures needed to flatten the curve in the state will not be implemented competently.