The Coalition of the United Political Parties (CUPP) said President Muhammadu Buhari compromised the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic during the burial Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari.
CUPP in a statement by the spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere said President Muhammadu Buhari government violated the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 protocol on how to dispose dead bodies of persons with infectious diseases.
“As of the time of the announcement of the death of the Chief of Staff, the NCDC had reported a total of 17 deaths and the Minister of Information had announced that corpses of victims of the virus would not be released to families for burial. Why have all the others who died weeks before Mallam Kyari not been buried?” CUPP demanded.
It called for the immediate disbandment of the Presidential Task Force led by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha for allegedly authorising the violation of all measures put in place to curtail the spread of the virus and to replace it with another to be headed by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
The coalition also said the government violated its own lockdown regulations of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun States, to contain the spread of Coronavirus in Nigeria.
It demanded that all “those who participated in the movement of Kyari’s dead body from Lagos, those at Defense House and the hundreds at the burial ground” should be arrested and kept in isolation for 14 days.
“All those who attended the burial in violation of the lockdown should be arrested and prosecuted for violating the lockdown which forbids burial of any sort and large crowd gathering. In times like this, there must not be preferential treatment for any person. There was no social distancing at the burial. All rules set for the prevention and containment of the virus were violated by the government,” the coalition observed.
CUPP described as shameful that the government had to relax the lockdown illegally for the burial.
It also disclosed that Abba Kyari was treated at a private clinic against WHO directive thereby exposing health workers and other patients at risk.