Abia To Declare Manhunt For Fleeing Ebola Suspects .

Abia State Government has said that it will declare a manhunt for all the Ebola suspects that may have sneaked into the state from neighbouring Rivers State.

Abia State Commissioner for Health, Mr. Okechukwu Ogah, who stated this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Umuahia, said he would liaise with his Rivers State counterpart to get the names of people suspected to have had contacts with the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo and later fled the state.

He said the names would be made public so that members of the public would help government in tracking the suspects down to avoid spreading the virus to residents of the state.

Ogah however cautioned against politicising the EVD. He gave the warning following some reports that Chinyere, the sister of the late Enemuo, had fled to Abia after the death of her brother before she was tracked down and brought back to Port Harcourt where she is currently quarantined.

He said he never saw Chinyere in Abia but noted that government was not leaving anything to chance as it had since stepped up public awareness and sensitisation on how to contain the Ebola virus.

The commissioner appealed to church leaders, traditional rulers, healing homes, landlords, tenants, and other members of the public to volunteer information about anyone suspected to have sneaked into Abia from Ebola-infested states.

He said: “We will work with neighbouring states to track down the 50 people that were said to have fled from Rivers State and put them on surveillance . We need to work together to rid Nigeria of Ebola; and if there is anybody hiding in Abia we will ask for their names and announce them on air for the public to help us track them,” he said.

Ogah said no known case of Ebola had been established in Abia.

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