By Scoop Reporter
HEALTH minister Chitalu Chilufya must be suspended or fired for sabotaging the presidency by releasing fictitious cases of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), an independent public health expert has told President Edgar Lungu.
In a petition dated May 12, 2020 containing 10 grounds on which Dr. Chitalu must be dropped, Becky Banda says Dr. Chilufya has allegedly been alarming the nation by telling lies about the 24-hour COVID-19 updates as most results he announces are days behind.
Dr. Banda cited the Friday and Saturday updates as having exposed the lies peddled by Dr. Chitalu as they were not only done less than 24 hours apart, but also had information either doctored or hidden from President Lungu on Friday.
He says Saturday’s results must be investigated by neutral and respectable public health and medical experts.
On the immigration officers at Nakonde border testing positive, Dr. Banda has asked which officers were working at the border if all of them were COVID-19 positive and hospitalized.
He says the entire figure of 85 positive cases for Saturday was therefore questionable and false, making the minister professionally wrong to be kept and continue updating Zambians on COVID -19 daily.
“The Saturday results of Dr. Chilufya also shows that the minister deliberately misled the President on Friday. It shows that the minister had the results but chose to hide them so that the President is misled.
“The minister also lied that the 82-year old woman died in the last 24 hours of Saturday when that woman died on Tuesday and was buried on Thursday. Why didn’t the minister allow the President to announce the death on Friday but chose to hide it to himself?” Dr. Banda asked.
He says the number of health workers and frontline staff who are contracting COVID -19 is very high which shows that Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has failed to protect and take care of his own staff and the ministry.
He says soon or later, Zambia risks a dark health crisis where health workers will start shunning and running away from their places of work in fear of contracting COVID-19 adding that the donations being received by his ministry were not being accounted for.
“Dr. Chilufya is not accountable to the many donations and support the Government has received from well-wishers. Two months of COVID-19, he has never explained to us Zambians how much has been donated and how it has been utilized.
“Remember your Excellency that this is the same person who is under corruption investigations. The picture that has been created among the people, be it health workers, other political players and indeed many citizens, is that you have been treating him as a sacred cow and that perception has deeply worked against your good leadership,” he said.
