The University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, and Oyo State government are now at loggerheads over N118 million said to have been spent on the fight against coronavirus.
Oyo State government on Tuesday, according to the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akinola Ojo, while giving the breakdown of money spent to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, said the money was released to UCH.
But the management of the hospital in a statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Toye Akinrinlola, said its investigation revealed that the money was given to the College of Medicine of the University of Ibadan.
In a statement issued by Mr. Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, on Wednesday, the state government insisted that “it is standing by its position that it has supported the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, to the tune of N118 million in the fight against COVID-19.”
But in a swift reaction, the UCH, in a statement issued by its Deputy Registrar and Secretary to the College, Dr. Ikeoluwapo O. Moody, maintained its stand too that it did not receive any support to the tune of N118 million from the government.
Explaining the government’s position, Adisa said records made available by the Oyo State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akinola Ojo, confirmed that the state government provided support to the UCH and the Department of Virology located inside the College to the tune of the said sum.
He quoted the Commissioner for Finance as further giving a breakdown of the expenditure, indicating that the sum of N118 million was expended in meeting the varied needs of the Department of Virology, College of Medicine and the University College Hospital.
The statement further indicated that attempts by the management of the UCH to disown the Department of Virology, which serves as the teaching and research department in the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan as well as provides Clinical Services to the UCH, was self-serving, artificial and contemptuous.
“The state government is of the view that attempts to create thin lines between the Department of Virology, College of Medicine, which provides Clinical Services to the UCH and operates from the same premises as the Hospital, amount to being clever by half, because in practical terms, the divorce cannot just hold.
“Staffers of the Department hold identity cards of the UCH and that of the University of Ibadan, even as the Department remains the only one that undertakes Virology-related assignments for the UCH,” the statement reads.
In its counter argument, UCH’s deputy registrar said: “The College Management wishes to state emphatically and categorically that it did not receive the sum of N118 million from the Oyo State government for COVID-19.
“To set the record straight, Oyo State government initially gave the College of Medicine N5 million to run the biorepository and clinical virology laboratory set up for the purpose of treating COVID-19 patients.
“However, when the accreditation by the NCDC was not forthcoming, the N5 million was returned to Oyo State government to help in fighting the pandemic in the state.
“Eventually, the biorepository and clinical virology laboratory was accredited by the NCDC and the College is working in tandem with the state government in testing patients using materials donated by the NCDC, corporate bodies, alumni association and other stakeholders.
“I therefore wish to state that the College of Medicine did not receive money to the tune of N118 million from Oyo State government.”
