Lagos State to fund Iwu’s abandoned research work on Ebola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, expressed readiness of his administration to fund Prof. Maurice Iwu’s abandoned research work on infectious diseases, such as the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, if he so desired to benefit from the state’s N142,239,000 million research grant.

The governor, also tasked scientists in Africa and Nigeria in particular to get involved in ground breaking work that will contribute to the development of Africans.
Fashola made the remarks at the presentation of research grants, drawn in cheques to seven tertiary institutions, both Federal and states, including a neighbouring state at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja.
The governor had constituted a 10-man Lagos State Research and Development Council which was inaugurated on November 21, 2012, towards identifying and funding research and development ideas to address the developmental challenges of Lagos State as well as to build the research capacity of the tertiary institutions in the state.
It will be recalled that Iwu who set up and headed the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme, led a research that reportedly started 10 years ago, after researchers were led to a plant commonly eaten in West Africa, popularly known as Bitter kola by traditional native healers who said they have used the plant for the treatment of infectious diseases for centuries.
Prof. Iwu who also came from a family of traditional healers after the tour said: “This is a very exciting discovery. The same forest that yields the dreaded Ebola virus could be a source of the cure.”
Maurice Iwu, who is a Professor of Pharmacognosy, was appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in June 2005, and was later removed from office in April 2010.
According to Fashola: “I was curious about what Professor Maurice Iwu was doing with elections if he was already researching on how Bitter Kola can cure some diseases.
“He should come back and do his work because really this is his core competence and if he is listening to me, I am challenging him that he will be able to reopen the frontiers of that research and present it, this organization will fund it.”


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