Facts have emerged that Rivers State Governor, Rotimi
Chibuike Amaechi and the state government compromised
in their handling of the Ebola virus case confirmed in Port
Harcourt, the state capital last week.
Had the state government swung into action immediately
the discovering of Ebola outbreak in the state, many lives
would have been saved. Competent sources said that as
soon as the carrier of the Ebola virus was identified by the
doctor who handled his case, the state government was
notified but Governor Amaechi swept it under the carpet
On Thursday last week, Governor Amaechi made a
statewide broadcast to the people where he confirmed the
death of one Dr. Ikechukwu Sam Enemuo on Friday, August
22, 2014 from suspected Ebola virus infection.
The governor had aid as a result of the death, his
administration had identified and quarantined about 100
contacts from the hotel, patients of Dr. Enemuo and patients
from the hospital where the deceased was treated with
different locations being decontaminated.
But investigations by Nigerian Pilot in Port Harcourt showed
that the governor’s broadcast was a last minute face-
saving move by his administration which did not respond
immediately to the discovering of the incident. Information
from well-placed sources in the state indicated that the
state government compromised on the Ebola outbreak in
Port Harcourt and has inadvertently put the lives of millions
of residents at risk. It was learnt that the state government
knew about the trip of the Economic Community of West
African States, ECOWAS diplomat to Port Harcourt as well
as his health condition and treatment by the late Dr.
Enemuo.
One of the close associates of the late medical doctor
confided in our reporter that upon noticing that the diplomat
had what looked like the Ebola virus, the late Dr. Enemuo
took samples of his blood and upon confirmation, duly
informed the Health Commissioner, Dr. Sampson Parker,
who subsequently informed the Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
But the governor instructed that the matter be kept top
secret.
“Rather than take proactive measures, including informing
the public, the state government kept the information under
wraps until it got out of hand. It also took them one whole
week to announce Enemuo’s death. A week is more than
enough period for the virus to spread round the state and
beyond.”
The late Dr. Enemuo, owner of Samsil Hospital in
Rumuokoro treated in a hotel room, an ECOWAS diplomat
who evaded surveillance in Lagos and travelled to Port
Harcourt after coming in contact with the late Patrick
Sawyer, the Liberian-American, who brought the virus to
Nigeria. The diplomat, whose name remains unknown, is
alleged to be Enemuo’s patient. He in turn infected the
doctor, who later died.
The diplomat lodged in hotel Port Harcourt where Dr.
Enemuo secretly treated and discharged him.
A week after his departure, Enemuo took ill and was rushed
to Green Heart Hospital located on EVO Road, Government
Reserved Area, GRA, with symptoms of fever and diarrhea.
In the course of treatment, the doctors became suspicious
and took blood samples for investigation. But before
Enemuo died, he carried out three surgical operations in his
hospital, as well as attended to several patients. His wife,
new born baby and grandmother are allegedly infected.
In three days, Dr. Enemuo died. His widow, who is also a
medical practitioner and who took care of him, took ill and
had been quarantined in Lagos but the diplomat is alive and
well.
Further investigations revealed that the ECOWAS diplomat
who got Ebola from Sawyer came into Port Harcourt
penultimate Monday. A source familiar with the matter told
Nigerian Pilot thus: “The Rivers State government was
aware that he left Lagos to Rivers State, they didn’t inform
anybody. The following day (Tuesday), his treatment by the
late doctor Enemuo commenced here in Port Harcourt and
Dr. Enemuo got infected. The Rivers State government at
some point was aware of Enemuo’s infection before he died
on Friday, 22nd August. Despite being aware of his health
condition, the state government allowed his body to be
taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital,
UPTH mortuary without taking the necessary precautionary
measures and without informing workers and the Federal
Ministry of Health. The ambulance driver who took him
there was not aware that he was carrying an Ebola virus
victim and the mortuary attendants were also not aware that
they had an Ebola corpse with them. Dr. Enemuo, before he
died, had been checked into another hospital where a doctor
colleague actually came into contact with Ebola fluid from
Enemuo. Dr. Enemuo was said to have at a time spat on the
body of his colleague doctor. Again, a female relation of Dr.
Enemuo, who is also a doctor, had been closely treating
him. These two doctors were not tracked down by the
Rivers State government. I even understand that another
concerned doctor was able to get their phone numbers and
relayed same to the relevant authorities in the Rivers State
so that they can track them down but this was not done for
a number of days; during that period, the female colleague
of his had gone on several trips to Aba and came back. So,
only today (Friday, 29thAugust), a week after the death of
Dr. Enemuo did the state government actually contacted
these two doctors.
“Information about the movement of the infected person was
not given to the public, the hotel which the initial Ebola
patient stayed and was treated; the details of the hotel
(such as location) hasn’t been given to the public so people
don’t even know if there are a lot of people who might have
visited that hotel. Only the name of the hotel has been
released to the public. There is even no evidence to show
that the hotel has been shut as claimed by the state
government, because there is no public information about
any hotel that the government has sealed up.
“Normally, if government shuts down a hotel even the
neighbours and people around there would know that a
certain hotel in the area has been sealed up and the news
would have spread, so people are still under assumption
that the hotel is still operational and more people are still
being put at risk by that. So, the Rivers State government is
certainly not handling the situation well. The relevant
information is not being given out to the public and the
movement of potential Ebola carriers is not being properly
monitored,” the worried source said.
As if that was not enough, the Health Commissioner on
Thursday called a meeting of all medical doctors in the
state in his office. In attendance were the two doctors who
treated late Dr. Enemuo. Some of the doctors who attended
the meeting queried why the commissioner would allow the
two doctors to sit together with them knowing the
implications. They expressed fears that some of them might
contact the dreaded disease and subsequently pass it on to
their patients in various hospitals, thereby expanding the
spread of the virus.
In the same vein, the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP has said that carelessness and
insensitivity on the part of Governor Amaechi and Dr.
Parker were responsible for the unfortunate spread of the
deadly virus in the state.
The PDP in a statement issued by Jerry Needan, Special
Adviser on Media to the state chairman, Prince Felix Obuah,
noted that Governor Amaechi and his health
commissioner’s laxity, coupled with not being proactive in
putting in place necessary facilities and modalities to
preventing the Ebola outbreak, was the reason for the ugly
development.
Describing the situation as devastating, the PDP regretted
that all efforts by the Federal Government to contain the
spread of Ebola to Rivers State were rebuffed by Amaechi,
including shunning a meeting convened in Abuja on the
prevention of the spread of Ebola to other states, presided
over by President Goodluck Jonathan, which had in
attendance, 35 states’ governors, except him (Amaechi).
At the meeting, modalities for containment of the spread of
the virus were considered and agreed upon, and all the
governors in attendance had immediately taken proactive
measures in impeding the spread, the statement noted.
When Nigerian Pilot visited the UPTH mortuary at the
weekend, two attendants were weeping profusely on
learning that the late Enemuo had Ebola. One of them
(names withheld) told Nigerian Pilot he and his colleague
received the corpse when it was brought to the morgue on
Friday, 22nd August, washed and dressed it for
preservation. “We never knew the doctor died of Ebola. We
even gave him special treatment when we heard he was a
medical doctor. He was here with us for one week and as a
routine, we bring out corpses everyday to check their
condition. Can you see the risk we have exposed ourselves
and families”, he said, weeping.
The ambulance driver who brought the corpse to the
morgue (names also withheld) equally bemoaned his fate,
regretting that he was kept in the dark on the identity and
cause of the death of Dr. Enemuo.
Nigerian Pilot moved round major areas of Port Harcourt at
the weekend to notice that the ugly incident had adversely
affected nightlife in the Garden City. Popular joints and night
clubs which used to attract huge patronage such as
Casablanca in the GRA, Rumuola, Stadium Road, Trans-
Amadi, Presidential Hotel on Aba Road, Tombia and other
areas, including Diobu, were deserted. Also visibly noticed
was the near absence of hordes of night sex workers who
usually hung around major hotels, night clubs and
recreation centres, with operators of the centres, food
vendors and cabs counting their losses in terms of revenue.
50 high risk cases identified
Meanwhile, the state Ministry of Health has banned
movement of corpses in an out of morgues without
clearance from the ministry. This stance was made public
by DR Parker yesterday when he briefed newsmen in Port
Harcourt.
Parker, who explained that the ministry was doing
everything within its power to track all those who had
primary and secondary contacts with the late Dr Enemuo,
stated that men of the state police command are expected
to stop ambulances and demand for clearance from the
ministry.
According to the commissioner, 50 Ebola high risk persons
have been identified in the state and that three persons have
been admitted at the treatment centre at Edoha. He blamed
stigmatisation for the reason why contacts had refused to
identify themselves.
Parker further informed that the state governor, Rt. Hon.
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is expected to meet with church
leaders and traditional ruler in the state over the menace.
“The governor will meet with church leaders tomorrow. He
will meet them by 10:00am. He will in the same vein meet
with all traditional rulers on Tuesday by 10:00am.
“But, 50 high risk contacts have been identified. Quickly, the
reason why I said so is because a lot of the news, stigma,
and all the rest, these persons are not coming up; we are
still on them. In fact, we are concentrating on these names
that we have found, than still going for new ones. Work is
being done to get new ones, but it is more important to
capture those names we have already.
“We now have three persons at the treatment centre at
Edoha; a pharmacist at Samsil Hospital and the doctor who
worked with Dr. Enemuo at the same hospital, and also a
lady, who was at the Good Heart Hospital while Dr. Enemuo
was there. However, they have not been confirmed, we are
waiting for the result of the investigation. Today (Sunday)
we should have them. Also, let me quickly tell you that Mrs.
Enemuo is in a stable condition in Lagos.
“Anyone who had primary or secondary contact with Dr.
Enemuo or the clinics and hotel, should voluntarily come
out and contact us. It doesn’t mean that you are infested;
all we need to do is just to observe you and if there is
anything, you let us know. The chances of survival are very
high. None of those that came up in Lagos had issues; most
of them were cleared.
“It is important that churches don’t keep admission wards
in their churches; some of them are running into churches
and groups of them are laying hands on them without
knowing”, he said.
http://nigerianpilot.com/ebola-how-rivers-govt-compromised/

I said it. My greatest fear about Ebola in Rivers state is that typical with the normal APC and PDP blame culture in the state (i.e Amechi - Nyeson sponsored propaganda), rather than coming out in one to fight the epidemic, the whole thing will be reduced to such blame-me-i-blame-you politics, and poor masses will just be dying. I personally do not see any purpose or need for this so called pilot investigation post except looking for someone to blame. Please Rivers State, this is not the time for looking for who did what or who did not do what. This is the time to join hands together and fight this ebola evil - just like they did in Lagos State.

The governor should be impeached if all I have just read is true .

This whole story sounds more like they are trying to give this guy a bad name. I don't think in all his fVckups, he can be this dumb and careless.

FG should just take this off Amechi if they are so sure he can't handle it, afterall, they were there for Lasg.

#God is able#