The Northern Elders Forum has accused some state governments of manipulating numbers of coronavirus cases in their states to secure money from the Federal Government.
Since the FG gave Lagos, the most affected state, N10bn to tackle the pandemic, some governors have been grumbling and demanding theirs.
In a statement by NEF’s chairman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi,however, it said some of the governments had gone as far as tampering with real numbers of cases.
The forum noted: “The forum regrets the appearance of attempts by many state governments to play politics with numbers for what appears to be expectations that more funds from the federal government and foreign donors will be allocated to them.
“It is public knowledge that what the entire nation needs are good policies that protect all Nigerians; equipment and facilities for testing and treatment; and resources to support people who will find it hard to stay at home without some palliatives during the lockdown.
“Policies that waste progress in some parts of the country and others which trample on the rights of vulnerable groups must be discouraged.
“States should adopt policies that suit their peculiarities, but the nation as a whole must agree on, and implement basic policies that protect the entire population.
“In particular, we commend the decision to deploy a strong medical team to, among others, verify the causes of many deaths that are being popularly attributed to the pandemic as well as assist the government of Kano State to improve its facilities, investigations and treatment of suspected infections and those who are infected.”
