NewsRescue
In April, the Nigeria minister of Information, Labaran Maku claimed that Nigeria had stockpiles of vaccines and was ready for the epidemic. Quoting PremiumTimes of April 2nd, 2014:
“Nigeria is ready, because the Ministry has taken every precaution, including getting the vaccines and medicines in case there was any incident in Nigeria”
The widow of Patrick Sawyer has now revealed that her husband believed he would be better-off in Nigeria when he contracted the virus, than in Liberia, due to the Minister’s publicized statements. The disinformation from the Minister of information is implicated in the pandemic crises that has killed several Nigerians and rendered over 100 in quarantine as the Ebola outbreak rocks the nation.
Here is the whole article from PremiumTimes of April 2, 2014:
“Nigeria is ready, because the Ministry has taken every precaution, including getting the vaccines and medicines in case there was any incident in Nigeria
The Federal government on Wednesday announced that after a week of thorough investigations, it was certain there was no outbreak of Ebola fever in Nigeria.
The Information Minister, Labaran Maku, stated this in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the weekly meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC. The meeting was presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo as President Goodluck Jonathan was away in Brussels, Belgium for the Africa, EU summit. Mr. Maku said the FEC devoted time to a detailed report by the Minister of Health on the findings over alleged outbreak of Ebola fever in Nigeria.
He said the Minister of State for Health, Kahaliru Alhassan, had told the Council that following speculations in the media that Ebola fever was in Nigeria, the ministry had in the course of the week undertook checks, with all results showing that there was no Ebola fever in Nigeria. He, however, assured that Nigeria was fully prepared to curtail any outbreak, particularly given reports that a few countries with close proximity to Nigerian on the west coast, like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, have reported cases of Ebola fever. Dozens of people have died from the fever, caused by a virus, in the affected countries.
“Nigeria is ready, because the Ministry has taken every precaution, including getting the vaccines and medicines in case there was any incident in Nigeria. “So far, there is nothing like Ebola fever in Nigeria, and Council was reassured that every step has been taken to ready our country just in case, infected persons come into the country from our neighbouring countries,” Mr. Maku said.
