By Dele Moses, Ilorin
An organisation advocating welfare of the citizenry, the Community Outreach for Development and Welfare Advocacy (CODWA), has criticised the manner the case of a London returnee kept in isolation centre as a COVID-19 patient, is being handled.
The returnee, Susan Lawani, had claimed in a video clip that when she arrived Benue State from the UK for the burial of her mother, her minor ill-health as a result of stress of long journey was turned by government of the state to be a cas of COVID-19.
She said after the government announced her a COVID-19 patient, she was later transferred from Benue isolation centre to Abuja centre and that she had spent in the two centres a total of 42 days without any treatment on COVID-19 and without an original copy of result of any of her three samples taken for test shown to her to convince her that she truly tested positive.
The CODWA, in a statement by its Executive Director, Taiwo Otitolaye, described the handling of Lawani’s case as uncivilized and unprofessional saying that the woman had suffered a dehumanising predicament.
Susan claimed that she arrived Nigeria from London on March 22, 2020, and on her own volition went to Grace Community Hospital in Makurdi on March 24, complaining of pains because her flight took 25 hours from London to Nigeria.
Her second video talked about how the Governor of Benue State, Mr. Samuel Ortom, and his team allegedly held a press conference to announce her as the index case-patient in Benue State without proper test and without her consent.
“This is the height of unprofessional conduct devoid of Public Health principles and confidentiality,” the group said.
“We are taken aback to see another video where she told the public it has been 42 days since her detention on arrival from England.
“We equally watched her interview with Channels TV where she made a revealing health and human rights violations on what she has been through since her forced isolation, and subsequent transfer from Makurdi to Abuja by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“CODWA observed Susan’s predicament as humiliating, official torture, undignified and display of ignoble stage show by the federal government of Nigeria in a twenty-first century world.
“Our concerns and conclusion is hinged on the dehumanization of Susan physically and psychologically. Her present conditions is traumatizing and exposes the characteristics obtained in failed state, and failed health systems.
“For the avoidance of doubt, it is hilarious to believe that Susan is a COVID-19 patient. Our reasons are situated within the public health underlying principle of incubation period.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) case definition and incubation for COVID-19 is between 5 to 16 days but she has spent over forty-five days in both Benue and Abuja without symptoms, and possible breakdown as a result of health related problems.”
CODWA urged that the case of Lawani should be treated with transparency and in accordance with the best practices in universal public health.
“We call on the Minister of health and the Director General of the NCDC to as a matter of urgency and fundamental rights put Susan Idoko Lawani to transparent health procedures according to her desire and in line with universal public health best practices,” it stated.