Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, is said to be seriously ill and in fact suspected of being infected with Coronavirus.
A top government source said on Monday that Kyari has been seriously “down” since returning from a trip abroad.
Kyari visited Germany and Egypt and only returned this week, giving credence to the fact that he may have indeed been infected with the virus.
Egypt has 327 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 14 deaths while Germany has 29,056 infections and 123 deaths.
Though coughing severely, Kyari is said to have been attending meetings including with Buhari, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, ministers and other members of the Federal Executive Council.
Executive Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Prof James Momoh, was said to have accompanied Kyari on the trip to both countries.
The latest development comes hours after a leaked memo showed Kyari telling Nigerian legislators, who recently returned from foreign trips, to submit themselves for Coronavirus test.
It also comes after Aisha Buhari, wife of Nigeria’s President, disclosed that one of her daughters was in self-isolation after returning from the United Kingdom, one of the high risk countries for the virus.
On Monday, Nigeria confirmed its first Coronavirus death after a former Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Suleiman Achimugu, succumbed to the virus in Abuja.
Earlier, the Nigerian Center for Disease Control announced a total of 36 confirmed cases but with Kyari’s suspected infection, that figure may have now risen to 37.
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