‘HIV/AIDS funds not to be spent on Jonathan’s campaign’

In a rejoinder, the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko, said the report was misleading, baseless and ludicrous.
A national paper (not Daily Trust), had reported that over N1.58bn  HIV/AIDS funds was to be spent by the federal government to conduct a one-day political jamboree to market President Goodluck Jonathan’s “achievements in the health sector, particularly, the progress purportedly recorded against HIV pandemic.”
The NACA boss added that there was a major programme billed to be implemented by National Agency for the control of AIDS (NACA) in line with the “Global Plan towards the elimination of NEW HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and keeping their Mothers Alive”.
The statement reads in parts, “It is not true that the Federal Government did not purchase any anti-retroviral drugs in 2013 for about 3.4 million Nigerians estimated to be living with AIDS, neither has the percentage of clients under  treatment dropped.  
“Not only did the Federal Government purchase anti-retroviral drugs in 2013, some states also did.  This made it possible for additional 150,000 people living with HIV/AIDS to benefit from this life saving drugs. The total number of people living with HIV/AIDS now benefitting from this treatment facilitated by the Federal Government and international partners stand at over 650,000.”