Edo State Government on Sunday said it was intensifying efforts to check the spread of Diphtheria, which has led to at least two deaths at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

The Deputy Governor of the state, Dennis Idahosa, stated this while speaking to journalists shortly after attending the Thanksgiving of his predecessor, Philip Shaibu, to mark his appointment as the Director General of the National Sports Institute by President Bola Tinubu.

But a group, Concerned Edo Citizens Forum, has called on the governor to shut down schools in the state to prevent further spread of the disease.

Idahosa told journalists that he would commence a visitation of the Primary Health Centres in the state from Monday to establish their level of functionality.

He said, ?We are doing everything we can to manage the outbreak and few days ago we as a taskforce had a meeting and all the necessary step are being taken to ensure that we curb this outbreak, everything is on top gear and by tomorrow (Monday) we are going to start visiting PHCs across the state.?

The CEDF in a letter signed by its convener, Roy Orihbhaor and Secretary, Austin Ibude to Governor Monday Okpebholo dated June 20, 2025, stated that their investigation showed that the disease was spreading and more deaths being recorded and therefore, urged the governor to place restriction on social dances and enforce the wearing of face masks.

The letter read in part, ?We humbly write to appeal for the closure of schools to curtail the spread of diphtheria disease and restrictions on parties and enforcement of face mask wearing through executive order accordingly.

?As critical stakeholder in the Edo project with responsibility to protect the interest of Edo people, we are seriously bothered about the spread of this deadly disease ravaging our dear state, research and survey conducted around hospitals clearly shows that very good number of persons are presently down with the disease and our hospitals are over stretched to accommodate patients hence, this appeal becomes necessary to curtail diphtheria disease and its spread.

?Your Excellency, we thank you so far for the effort to mitigate the spread, but a critical and radical approach is required now to fundamentally address and tackle the disease because a healthy society is a wealthy society. The death rate has increased in recent times based on our observations and research.? (The PUNCH)

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