#COVID19: ‘They Could Disappear’ — Deji Adeyanju Begs Trump To Distribute Ventilators Directly To Nigerians

The convener of Concerned Nigerians, and human rights activist, Prince Deji Adeyanju, has called on the President of the United States (US), Donald Trump, to instruct the US Embassy in Nigeria to assist in the distribution of the ventilators he promised the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump had said Nigeria was desperately seeking for ventilators to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that there are only 169 ventilators in 16 out of the 36 states.

Speaking at a press briefing, Trump mentioned Nigeria and other European countries where surplus ventilators will be sent to.

The US President, who addressed the press chat with the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, said Florida had been in need of ventilators and thousands were sent to them and now, they had a surplus not being used which could be sent to other countries.

In his words: “Ron said one thing that was interesting. He talked about ventilators and that ventilators were going to be a disaster in Florida and not enough and we sent them thousands of ventilators. But in the meantime, you have thousands of ventilators that aren’t used and we’ll be able to send them probably to other countries.

“You’ll build up your stockpile because these other countries, Italy, France, Spain; we’re sending to Spain.

“I spoke to Nigeria. They’ll do anything for ventilators. We’re going to send at least 200 ventilators to Nigeria; probably more than that.”

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja, disclosed that Nigerian Ruler, Muhammadu Buhari in a phone conversation spoke with Trump on the handling of the coronavirus in Nigeria, adding that Trump promised to send ventilators.

“President Buhari used the opportunity to brief the American President on the steps that Nigeria is taking to contain the spread of the disease.

“President Trump also extends his best regards to the people of Nigeria,” the minister had said

Reacting in a tweet via his Twitter handle, on Sunday morning, Adeyanju thanked Trump for the promise to donate ventilators to Nigeria.

He, however said the ventilators could “disappear”.

“Thank you for the promise to donate ventilators to Nigeria. I make a passionate appeal to you to instruct your Embassy here to share the ventilators to the 36 States + FCT because we have no confidence in our Govt. The ventilators could disappear,” he tweeted.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Saturday evening, reported 220 new COVID-19 infections in the country, bringing the new tally of infected people to 2388.

Lagos, the epicenter of the outbreak in Nigeria, recorded 62 cases on the above day, followed closely by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with 52.

A breakdown of the latest update shows that 62 of the new cases were reported in Lagos, 52 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 31 in Kaduna, 31 in Sokoto, 10 in Kebbi, 9 in Yobe, 6 in Borno, 5 in Edo and Bauchi, 4 each in Gombe, Enugu, and Oyo, 3 in Zamfara, 2 each in Nasarawa, Osun, Ebonyi, Kwara, Kano, and Plateau.