NEDC donates infectious diseases lab to Taraba govt

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has donated COVID-19 and infectious diseases laboratory to the Taraba Government, Alhaji Mohammed Alkali, the Managing Director of the commission, announced on Tuesday in Jalingo.

Alkali said that the laboratory was meant to reduce avoidable complications associated with delayed diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

He said the commission had also donated 10,000 stocks of assorted drugs and consumables to primary health care facilities across the state’s 16 local government areas.

The managing director promised that COVID-19 prevention items would also be distributed to schools, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and security agencies in the state.

The commission would similarly provide agricultural inputs to farmers in the three Senatorial Districts of the state, to boost their production, he added, while listing some of the inputs billed for distribution.

Alkali identified the items to include, 10 four-wheel-drive tractors, 28 disc plows for tractors,10 boom sprayers, 10 planters, 18 three-wheel tractors, 1,500 bags of improved rice seeds, and 4,500 bags of fertilizers.

The NEDC helmsman used the opportunity to announce the establishment of the commission’s “Education Endowment Fund (EEF)’’, for which N6 billion had already been set aside to focus on training in education, health, and agriculture.

Similarly, Alkali said that the commission had provided 10,000 blankets to public boarding schools in the state, in addition to distributing 60,000 exercise books to public schools and 20,000 books to private schools in the state.

The NEDC managing director commiserated with the state over the recent floods which affected some communities in the state and promised to provide emergency relief materials to the victims.

Gov. Darius Ishaku commended the commission for its interventions in the state but urged it to consult with the state in the area of the project location.

Ishaku stressed that he remained resolute in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in the state, saying that three molecular laboratories had already been set up in Jalingo and Takum General Hospitals.