Akwa Ibom State Civil Society Organizations Call for Recall of Dr. Uwah

Recall Dr Aniekeme Uwah Now!

PRESS RELEASE

April 25, 2020

The Akwa Ibom State Civil Society Organizations Forum decries the reported sacked of Dr Aniekeme Uwah, the State Epidemiologist and Lead of the State’s Incidence Management Committee for COVID19 by the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Dominic Ukpong.
The forum is shocked that the state could muster the courage to sack the foremost epidemiologist at this critical time, especially with palpable fears among the citizenry that the virus might have spread more than the government would want the world to believe.
Dr Uwah is reported to have been sacked because he sent more blood samples for testing that the than his immediate boss the, Health Commissioner would have wanted him to. If this report is accurate, then the decision to sack the lead epidemiologist would be a most terrible decision and a disservice to the state.
Dr Aniekeme Uwah is a reputed medical professional with a wealth of experience in ublic Health and expertise in curbing infectious diseases and highly sought after in Africa. He was recently honoured by the African Union for his meritorious service fighting Ebola outbreak in Liberia between 2014 and 2015 and is currently the Secretary, Commonwealth Medical Association’s COVID-19 Response Committee. He is an asset to Akwa Ibom State.
Akwa Ibom State Civil Society Organizations Forum hereby calls on the state governor to wade into the matter and reinstate Dr Aniekeme Uwah. His sack at this time would worsen the already precarious situation caused by this rampaging pandemic.
Furthermore, if the reason reported for the sack is indeed true, then it raises a lot of questions. Why is the state government intent on reducing the number of people tested? Didn’t the state government put out a release a few days back declaring they were embarking on aggressive testing? What is the number of people tested so far? Why is the state government shrouding the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state in secrecy? What are they hiding?
While we leave the state government to provide answers to these questions, we passionately plead with the state governor, His Excellency, Deacon Udom Gabriel Emmanuel to reinstate Dr, Aniekeme Uwah for the good of Akwa Ibom state Citizens.
Signed:

Harry Udoh, Chair
Dr Nsekpong Udoh, Secretary