Barely three months after WikkiTime published an undercover investigation exposing how some health workers in Bauchi State diverted drugs from government healthcare centres for personal gains, the state government said it has set up an investigative committee to look into the matter.
Dr Rilwan Mohammed, the Chairman, Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, disclosed this when Alheri Community Development and Support Initiative, a Bauchi/Gombe-based civil society organization paid an advocacy visit to the agency.
The agency’s boss maintained that the state government will implement the recommendations outlined in the committee’s report to ensure a transparent service delivery across the healthcare centres in the state. He assured that the agency will inform the civil society groups of whatever decision the government takes after the submission of the committee’s report.
Dr Hamid Adamu Mohammad, the Executive Director of Alheri Community Development and Support Initiative, said Governor Bala Mohammed has reportedly called the attention of Rilwanu’s agency to WikkiTimes’ investigation.
THE UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION
In the investigation, WikkiTimes, also chronicled how the selfish staff connived with their collaborating syndicate who were mostly drug vendors to cheat the system. Their corrupt conduct left those in need in excruciating pain and forced them to dive deeply into their pockets to afford treatment while many who could not afford it perished in the process.
About a month later, WikkiTimes Publisher Haruna Mohammed Salisu, lamented the government’s laxity in prosecuting individuals and entities exposed by the medium. In a similar investigation, WikkiTimes also uncovered how hospital laboratories in the neighbouring state of Gombe issue fake genotype certificates for a token, sometimes even free.
The Publisher in an interactive programme with Albarka Radio in Bauchi lamented that despite the time and resources invested to uncover the wrongdoings, the governments seemed not to make a drastic effort to bring the perpetrators into books to account for their wrongdoings.
Similarly, the publisher, during a live radio program organised by Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG), a civil society organization working to promote good governance in Nigeria on Kiss FM Abuja, bemoaned the nonchalant attitude of governments towards prosecuting the entities and individuals whose corrupt practices were exposed by the platform.
Established in 2018, WikkiTimes had unearthed a number of scandalous and inhumane conducts by individuals in government and private entities, including in traditional settings.
