COVID 19: Ignore WHO, go for local cures, Reps tell FG

The House of Representatives yesterday called on the Federal Government to ignore the World Health Organization, WHO, in efforts to find cure for COVID-19 and approve use of alternative remedies to cure the disease.

It also called on governors of the 19 states of the North to reverse the ban on the Almajiri System until millions of Islamic school children loitering the streets of the region without care are provided for by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC.

The Green Chamber also urged the Federal Government to intervene and immediately halt repatriation of  Almajirai children to their states of origin.

The House, in a motion by Ossy Prestige (PDP, Abia), rejected warnings by the World Health Organization on the use of local cures for the disease.

Sponsor of the motion noted that since the outbreak of Coronavirus disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, it has infected more than four million people around the world, with a global death toll of about 300,000, adding that Nigeria   has over 4,641 confirmed cases and over 150 deaths, with the virus spreading to virtually all states of federation at an alarming rate.

The House plenary, preside over by the speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, immediately adopted the motion, urging government to support and encourage the use of locally developed remedies for the management and treatment of COVID-19 ailments in Nigeria in order to ascertain their efficacy.

It also mandated the Committee on Health “to interface with the relevant government agencies to ensure that our locally-deveIoped remedies for the treatment of COVID-19 are included in the clinical trials by the WHO under its “Solidarity initiative.”

Presenting his motion, the Abia lawmaker said: “The World Health Organization, WHO, has not found any effective cure or vaccine for this virus ravaging the world but has launched an international clinical trial known as “Solidarity” to help find an effective cure for this disease.

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