Odinkalu: My close shave with Ebola

The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has revealed that he was treated as an outpatient by one of the doctors who attended to Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought the deadly virus to Nigeria.

Odinkalu was thereafter placed under observation for 21 days and subsequently declared free of the disease.

Because of this experience, the lawyer has asked the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to postpone its annual conference, scheduled for August 24 to August 29, in Owerri, capital of Imo state.

He said in a statement on Sunday: “On 15 August, the NBA issued a public statement claiming that it is putting adequate anti-Ebola precautions for its members attending the 2014 Annual General Conference in Owerri.

“It failed to say what these precautions were or who said they were ‘adequate’. As a result, participants are not in a position to asses independently what risks they run in attending the conference. The most ‘adequate precaution’ the NBA can take at this time is to defer the conference. It should do so. If the NBA declines, I would urge government at all levels to strongly request it to do so.

“I am a scheduled speaker at the Owerri Conference. I have also been a person under observation for Ebola because as an out-patient I was attended on 21 July by one of the doctors in Lagos who managed the index case, i.e., on the day after he was admitted.

“The NBA has no way of knowing this and has made no effort to elicit this kind of information from any of the participants. I have decided that I will not go to Owerri. As an act of responsible citizenship, I would also urge as many intending participants as possible to consider withdrawing from the Owerri conference.”

He advised that in place of the Owerri conference, an inauguration for the new leaders of NBA can take place at the secretariat of the body in Abuja, while the general conference holds much later.

Odinkalu said going ahead to hold the conference which is likely to attract a gathering more than 20,000 people, will be seen as a disregard to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the federal government that have warned against large gathering amid the outbreak of the disease.

He advised participants to withdraw, threatening to boycott the event if the NBA goes ahead with the programme.