The Oyo State government has accused the federal government of being biased against the state in the disbursement of funds meant for the fight against COVID-19 to states and the federal capital territory.
The state commissioner for information, culture and tourism, Wasiu Olatunbosun made the allegation while receiving an award of excellence on behalf of the state governor, Seyi Makinde, on Monday, in Ibadan, the state capital.
The award was presented by the Abuja branch of the Music Advertisement Association of Nigeria (MAAN).
Olatunbosun said while the state had to reach out to donor agencies to carry out tests and equip its laboratories and treatment centres, the federal government provided financial assistance to Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory (FCT)
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Lagos and Ogun are states under the control of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) while Oyo is under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“It is very disturbing when you realise that the federal government has disbursed a lot of money and resources to Lagos, Ogun, Abuja and some other states while Oyo state is being neglected, party solidarity should not have come into an important issue like intervention to states on a pandemic like this, it is wrong,” he said.
“Oyo state has been doing it all alone, the only test kits given to the state was too small that it had no significance in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the state, thank God for the resourcefulness of the state governor for looking inward and finding other means of executing many funding in respect to battling the pandemic.
“Only community testing has gulped over 20,000 testing kits, but there is every reason to thank God for our governor and donor agencies, individuals, corporate organisations that have come to the aid of Oyo state.”
He, however, added that the state would reap the gains of equipping its health facilities in the post COVID-19 era.
“The post-COVID-19 health sector era will be blissful as the resources put into equipping all the state-owned health facilities all over the state will now make the sector responsive, the sector will never be the same again,” Olatunbosun said.
