FG to verify COVID-19 cure claims by scientists

The Federal Government has said it would soon invite all researchers, including herbal medicine practitioners, to a summit to verify claims of their cure for COVID-19.

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu disclosed this when he received a pharmacist and a herbal medicine practitioner, Dr. Ben Amodu, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office yesterday in Abuja.

Onu said that renowned scientists would be at the summit to subject respective herbal products with a cure laim for Covid-19 to clinical trials and toxicity tests.

The minister bemoaned the fact that “many drugs used in our homes and schools are imported, whereas Nigeria has abundant medicinal plants that could be used for pharmaceutical purposes”, adding that “such medicinal plants and their products could also be exported, thereby helping to diversify the economy and create more jobs for Nigerians.”

He said the Federal Government would continue to support the research into herbal medicine as a means of diversifying the economy.

Onu appealed to Nigerian scientists to take the lead in finding solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic which had caused so much disruption to all aspects of national life, stressing that the ministry would continue to support indigenous research efforts for the purpose of commercialization.

“The world is facing a pandemic that has a deleterious effect on the global economy, an event unheard of since World War 2”, he said.