Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has announced the appointment of Professor Adesegun Fatusi as the new Chairman of the State Inter-ministerial Committee Against COVID-19.
This was disclosed in a statement made available to Igbere TV on Saturday in Akure, signed by the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ojo Oyewamide.
The development is coming days after Akeredolu tested positive for COVID-19. He had also vowed not to handover to his embattled deputy, Agboola Ajayi, in acting capacity. Ajayi has since decamped to the PDP to contest the state Governorship election against his boss, Akeredolu.
The deputy governor had reportedly sought his boss’s approval to take charge while he(Akeredolu) is isolating, including leading the fight against COVID-19 in Ondo. But the Governor refused to hand over the reins of power to his deputy.
In the statement on Saturday, Akeredolu, however, argued that the appointment of the new COVID-19 response team boss followed the demise of the former health commissioner, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, whom he said was leading the fight until now.
The statement reads, “Following the unfortunate demise of the Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, the Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN has appointed Professor Adesegun Fatusi as the new Chairman of the State Inter-ministerial Committee Against COVID-19.
“Until his death, Dr Adegbenro was the Chairman of the State Inter-ministerial Committee where he served diligently to the admiration of all.”
Igbere TV reports that the new chairman of the Ondo State Inter-ministerial Committee Against COVID-19, Professor Fatusi is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo state.
“He(Fatusi) is expected to continue from where our late Medical Hero, Adegbenro stopped. His appointment is aimed at preventing a vacuum as the State experiences a disturbing spike of repeated cases of COVID-19,” Akeredolu said.
Prof. Fatusi is a professor of Community and Public Health and past Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
He has previously served as the Director of the OAU’s Institute of Public Health and worked with the UNFPA as reproductive health advisor.
He is currently the chairman of Nigeria’s National Technical Working Group on Adolescent Reproductive Health and Development.
He has also served as the Lead Consultant for the development of Nigeria’s national policy on the health and development of adolescents and young persons, national reproductive health policy, and national policy on HIV/AIDS.
He had served previously, on the Ministerial Committee on Health Sector reform as well as on the Board of the National Universities Commission (NUC) of Nigeria.
