By Sarah NEGEDU
As the death toll from cholera outbreak in Nigeria continues to rise, the leadership of the Federal Capital Territory Administration has tasked its agencies to take decisive actions to guard against the outbreak of the disease in the FCT.
The Federal Government had on Monday, declared a health emergency over the outbreak of the disease, with an immediate activation of a national cholera emergency centre.
Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, said as of June 24, 1, 528 suspected cases and 53 deaths had been recorded across 31 states and 107 local government of the country.
Accordingly, Minister of State Minister for FCT, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, charged the FCT Primary Health Care Board to put in place precautionary measures to guard against the outbreak of the epidemic in the nation’s capital.
The minister who made the call while taking briefs from the Director of the FCT Primary Health Care Board during the FCT Joint Account Allocation Committee, JAAC, warned that as the seat of government all necessary measures should be put in place to avoid any outbreak of the disease.
A statement by the Media Adviser to the minister, Austine Elemue, said the minister expressed satisfaction over the non reported case of the epidemic in the nation’s capital.
“I am indeed delighted that no case of the cholera epidemic has been reported in any of our primary healthcare centres across the six area councils in the FCT.
“However, that does not give us room to relax because this is the seat of government. The FCT Primary Health Care Board should put in place measures to guard against any outbreak of the disease.
“By now, I was expecting the board to commence radio jingles in different major languages and sensitization programmes in our schools, markets, mosques and churches. We should not give room for the outbreak before we start fire brigade approach. That will not be acceptable,” she warned.
The statement further disclosed that the FCT Administration disbursed the sum of N3,624,968091,.61 billion to the six area councils and other stakeholders as statutory allocation for the month of May, 2024.
The minister of state who presided over the 190th FCT Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting noted that a breakdown of the figures released during the JAAC meeting indicates that the sum of N1,138,534,925.64billion was made available for distribution to the six area councils, while the sum of N2,486,433,165.97billion was made available to other stakeholders, bringing the total sum to N3,624,968,091.61billion.
“Similarly, distributions to the six area councils shows that the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), received N346,534,958.69million, while Gwagwalada got N160,805,125.65million and Kuje received N191,381,478.23million.
“Other area councils include, Bwari Area Council which received N152,802,656.03million, Abaji got N119,495,116.96million while Kwali received N167,515,590.08million, bringing the total sum to N1,138,534,925.64billion disbursed to the six area councils.
“On the other hand, distribution to other critical stakeholders include: Primary School Teachers which gulped N2,115,855,089.92billion, 15 percent Pension Funds took N226,478,989.57million, One percent Training Fund gulped N36,249,680.85million, while 10 percent Employer Pension Contribution gulped N107,849,405.63million, bringing the total sum to N2,486,433,165.97billion.”
