•Urges FG not to use outbreak to suppress campaigns of opposition

  • We are working with Uganda to contain spread — Pate

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged the President Tinubu led administration to account for the ₦10 billion approved for Ebola preparedness.

In a statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, the former Vice President said the confirmed case in Abuja has exposed a dangerous breakdown in the government’s response.

He also warned against using the outbreak to suppress political compaigns and discourage Nigerians from voting.

“Ebola is a grave public health threat. Nigerians deserve urgent action, competent leadership and the truth. Instead, the first confirmed case in Abuja has exposed unanswered questions about preparedness, surveillance and the protection of health workers. Tinubu must account for the ₦10 billion he said would be released immediately in June.”

“Where is the money? Publish the amount actually disbursed, the dates of payment, every contract awarded, every recipient and every item delivered. If the money was not released, Tinubu must explain why he announced emergency funding that never reached the people responsible for protecting Nigerians. A press statement cannot replace an audit.”

“The timeline is damning. The patient arrived in Nigeria on October 5, developed symptoms on October 7 and sought care at a private hospital on October 11. The government did not confirm the case publicly until October 20, nine days after she sought care. During that critical period, 44 close contacts were left unmonitored, while private health workers faced the case without adequate protective equipment. This is a failure of preparedness with potentially grave consequences.”

“The government must disclose what happened at every stage. What travel history and exposure screening were conducted? What follow-up began when the patient developed symptoms? When were the 44 contacts first reached and monitored? Why were frontline staff left without the protection they needed? Nigerians deserve answers, and those responsible for these failures must be held accountable.”

“In June, Tinubu announced a Presidential Task Force chaired by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. Today, Nigerians must ask whether political appointees have been allowed to overshadow the medical experts who should lead this response. The NCDC, epidemiologists, doctors and public health professionals must be in charge, with the authority and resources to act. Political titles cannot trace contacts, equip hospitals or save lives.”

“Nigerians are already battling the economic hardship created by Tinubu’s policies. Now the government’s failure to prepare and respond threatens to deepen public anxiety and disrupt movement, livelihoods and economic activity. The people must not pay twice for the same failure: first through hardship, then through a bungled emergency response. Both caused by Bola.”

“I am also alarmed by confirmed information that the Minister of Health’s press conference tomorrow is intended to discourage Nigerians from attending campaign rallies and, ultimately, from voting. It is ridiculous that the same Minister of Health, whose entire ministry was funded with N35 million disbursement in 2025 appropriation and was not involved in the Ebola prevention programme is now being promoted to make health emergency announcements.”

“The Tinubu administration must not weaponise Ebola to frighten the public, silence its opponents or suppress voter participation. Any public health measure must be backed by clear medical evidence, applied equally and never used as a pretext to interfere with Nigerians’ democratic rights.”

“The ‘Bola-Ebola’ strategy will not fool Nigerians. You cannot fail to protect the people, conceal what happened to emergency funds, then use the crisis to restrict their freedom. Account for the ₦10 billion. Protect every health worker. Trace every contact. Tell Nigerians the truth. Fight Ebola, and keep your hands off their right to assemble and choose their leaders,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate has said the federal government is working with Uganda and was tracing the case’s contacts to stop the Ebola virus from spreading.

Speaking State House correspondents on Wednesday evening after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Pate appealed for calm noting that Nigeria’s only Ebola case is being contained, urging Nigerians not to fall into a trap of hysteria or panic.

“All I can tell you is that we are collaborating with our sister African nation of Uganda. What is important is that we have found this one case. We are doing contact tracing, and we are putting containment measures to ensure that it doesn’t go into our population,” he said.

The Minister said Nigeria had handled the disease before and had the institutions to do so again.

“The Federal Government has competent authorities to deal with this. We have done it in 2014, and we have good public health institutions. Nigerians should be reassured.”

“We must be vigilant, but not panic. People should respect public health information from trusted sources and not spread misinformation and false rumours,” Pate added.

The Minister also pledged regular updates and said he would soon receive a report on the case.

“We will be truthful to Nigerians with the information that we receive on a daily basis. If the situation changes, we will come out and inform Nigerians,” he affirmed.

He further revealed that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has an incident management system and was working 24/7 while the Presidential Task Force on Ebola was also active.

He noted that the outbreak had run for five months without a case in Nigeria and that other countries had dealt with it.

He said, “It’s one case. It’s an imported case, and we are containing it.”

Asked about the review of the response plans, Pate said that was already under way, and that coordination with the office of the National Security Adviser and the task force had served us well.

“That has been ongoing. The truth of the matter is that we have a very good response coordination mechanism with the office of the NSA with the public health measures with the task force, and that has served us well.”

“In fact, we’re a large country, and I just travel a lot. And we have one case, and even that one case coming from outside our country, and we’ve been able to detect it and report it and be able to take effort to contain it,” the Minister said.