Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has expressed his support for the importation of the COVID Organics touted by Madagascar.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, said at the PTF briefing on Monday that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had directed the airlifting of the COVID Organics to Nigeria.

“On the Madagascar’s syrup, it is being freighted to Guinea Bissau by the President of Madagascar. Certain allocations have been made to different countries. We have an indication of the quantity for Nigeria.

“I have received instructions from Mr President to freight it home with a clear instruction that I should subject it to the validation process similar to what will happen to any medicine, vaccine or syrup that is discovered internally,” Mustapha stated.

Also speaking at the PTF briefing, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said the Malagasy herbal ‘cure’ would be subjected to clinical validation before being dispensed to coronavirus patients in the country.

“With regard to the cure from Madagascar, it is making the news and we have promised of being able to get samples of the botanical products… We will also give it to the research community here to examine and see what they can do with it. We understand that it is something called artemisia annua which also grows here… But before we give it to our people, we will make sure that it is actually safe and it actually works,” the minister said.

But commenting on Tuesday via Twitter, Obi, who was Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party, said similar authorisation should be given to local inventions.

“I firmly support the authorisation of President Muhammadu Buhari for importation and subjection of the Madagascar COVID-19 Syrup to standard validation process for pharmaceuticals, and possibly for use in the cure of this virus.

“Similar authorisation and encouragement should be given to local inventions. This will save us scarce forex and will give confidence to domestic researchers and inventors,” he tweeted.

See tweet:

I firmly support the authorisation of @MBuhari for importation and subjection of the Madagascar #COVID19 Syrup to standard validation process for pharmaceuticals, and possibly for use in the cure of this virus.

— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) May 12, 2020