COVID-19: Kogi Government Says Reported Case By NCDC Was Only Stung By A Bee

The Kogi State government has once again insisted that the state is free on coronavirus infection.

This is as the government on Monday noted that the COVID-19 case announced as the index case in the state by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in May was only a complication arising from a bee sting.

This was made known by Kingsley Fanwo, Kogi State commissioner for information and communication in a statement on Monday.

According to him, the index case never saw a result confirming his diagnosis of the disease.

Fanwo disclosed that the new details were unveiled after the state debriefed Abubakar Ahmad, the chief imam of Kabba who was one of the two index cases of COVID-19 listed in the state by the NCDC.

He said the patient was debriefed after his discharge from the National Hospital in Abuja where he was managed by the NCDC.

Fanwo said: “We are shocked to discover that his experiences in the hands of the NCDC are far from everything that Nigerians have been told constitute best practices in a Covid-19 situation, especially its pathogenesis and management”.

“The Chief Imam, an upright and outstanding man who is only interested in the truth confirmed what we have known all along – that he did not test positive for Covid-19 and received no result of such a diagnosis neither did his doctors at the National Hospital, Abuja where he was confined advise him of it,” he said.

The commissioner added that the Imam was allowed to interact with visitors throughout his stay in the clinic and the son also tested negative to the virus.

“The cleric maintains that he suffered from nothing beyond complications from an attack by bees, medical conditions which pre-date the Covid-19 pandemic and stress from travels associated with his work. Till he was released yesterday, he was held in conditions which allowed him to interact with visitors.

“The son’s case is even more strange as he has a negative test result to confirm that he is Covid-19 free. Ditto all his siblings who were tested in the days following as the NCDC serially sought an off-taker for the second Covid-19 case which they had earlier foisted on Kogi State.

“Throughout his father’s time in the custody of the NCDC, and in keeping with his Covid-19 negative status, the son remained at liberty and was his father’s primary helper.

“He was never hospitalised and was allowed to go home each day and return the next. He was allowed to mingle freely with family, visitors, hospital staff and others. Yet, till this day, he remains the second case of Covid-19 allocated to Kogi state on the NCDC’s scoreboard.”

The commissioner also alleged the NCDC was planning to pin more cases on the state as its officials were not been carried along as necessary in the management of the virus in the state.

“Nearly one week after she (the third patient) was sneaked onto the NCDC’s list, the Kogi state government is yet to be armed with the actionable information she needs to take preemptive actions in line with the Covid-19 guidelines,” he said.

“We suspect that the NCDC’s lackadaisical attitude may not be unconnected with the knowledge that no infection has been found. Just like in the case of the Chief Imam and his family, let it be known that we are looking out for our citizen and will demand full reckoning should any harm come to her.”

Naija News recalls the state governor, Yahaya Bello had cut short the two-weeks lockdown imposed on Kabba/Bunu local government less than a week after the lockdown was initially imposed as he insisted no COVID-19 case is active in the state.