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Abba Kyari, President Buhari’s Chief Of Staff Contracts Coronavirus
Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19).
NewsOne Nigeria reports that reports in the Nigerian media quoted a presidential source privy to the development have said that Kyari, who had recently returned from Germany through Egypt, did not show symptoms of COVID-19.
This burgeoning online news platform understands that the Chief of Staff was said to have isolated himself upon return from the trip on suspicion that he may have been exposed to the virus.
The presidency source said Kyari “called a few close friends to inform them of his status yesterday but was advised to not make his status public until the President’s test result was out.”
On the other hand, President Buhari was said to have however tested negative for the virus at the time Kyari is said to be currently undergoing treatment at an undisclosed facility.
In a related development, a report has emerged, suggesting that 25 Nigerian lawmakers have contracted the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19).
NewsOne Nigeria understands that the 25 Nigerian lawmakers that have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus include members of the Nigerian Senate and members of the House of Representatives.
A report monitored on a Nigerian online news platform, ALEDEH, quoted a reliable source to have said that 10 senators and 15 members of the House of Representatives are reportedly hospitalised in private hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus.
The report by the online newspaper added that some of the Nigerian lawmakers had arrived from London, the United Kingdom over the past week.
Meanwhile, NewsOne Nigeria reports that the claim by ALEDEH is coming after Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari raised an urgent public health alarm to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, informing him of the arrogance of some Nigerian lawmakers towards health officials.
In a letter to Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila on March 21, the President’s Chief of Staff said Nigeria’s Minister of Health had drawn his attention to repeated violation of screening procedure at the nation’s airports.
“As you are aware, these airport screenings are our primary line of defence and refusal by any citizen to subject to these tests is a threat to our nation,” the Chief of Staff wrote the Speaker of the nation’s House of Representatives.
In the letter which surfaced on social media Monday morning, Kyari admonished Gbajabiamila to immediately rein in the excesses of federal lawmakers and ask all those who have refused to submit to a medical test for coronavirus (COVID-19) to report themselves at the screening centres across the country. The letter did not specifically name the lawmakers that declined screening upon returning from a foreign trip.
