…Our results are verified, NCDC Spokesperson
Two sons of late Dr. Yakubu Aliyu, a practising medical doctor in Daura, Katsina state, have alleged that the reports of their positive status for coronavirus, COVID-19, were manipulated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.
Speaking in separate videos obtained by PRNigeria, the two sons claimed that their father could not have tested positive for and died of COVID-19.
Recall that Katsina state government had confirmed that the death of the medical doctor, Aliyu Yakubu, was because he had contracted the virus.
Aged 60, he died at the Nigeria Air Force Reference Hospital, Daura last week.
Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina had said that the deceased owned a private hospital in Daura and had visited his home state, Kogi, from where he travelled to Lagos some weeks ago.
However, Mr Nuhu Aliyu, one of the sons of the late medical doctor, alleged that health officials of the NCDC manipulated the sample result of their father’s coronavirus test.
In a short video, Nuhu described the report of his father contracting and dying of coronavirus as fake, and urgrd the general public to disregard the fake news and misinformation.
He disclosed that though personnel of NCDC in Katsina state stormed their house on Tuesday and took their samples for medical analysis, they were surprised to hear first in social media, that three of them had also tested positive.
Nuhu also posited that even the public never knew the actual number of persons whose samples were taken in their family.
“They have already concluded plans to come and pick me, my mother and brother for observation. But we don’t know where they intend to take us to, the kind of food they will give us and also the medication. That is why I am shooting this small video in case anything bad happens to us,” Nuhu said.
In another amateur video, another son, Abdulmalik Aliyu said he also recently received news from his friends that he had COVID-19, even when the NCDC officials were yet to confirmed his status, first to him.
He said though their father just passed away, he did not die as a result of coronavirus.
“Our late father did not die because he was infested with any coronavirus. He never had contact with COVID-19 patients, in the first place. While those he even had contact with have all been traced and none was said to have suffered from coronavirus. So they just capitalized on the fact that he is no more to lie about what killed him,” Abdulmalik added.
Like his brother, he also urged the public to report his video to security agencies, should anything tragic happens to them.
However, responding to the allegation of manipulation of results of COVID-19, a spokesperson of NCDC, Chukwuemeka Oguanuo told PRNigeria that the issue of manipulation had been cleared severally by authorities, including the Director General of Centre, during daily presidential press briefings.
In an SMS, Oguanuo said, “the COVID-19 testing labs are accredited and provide verified results.”
“Some people can be in denial of their status, it’s psychological.
“The State Ministry of Health or the State Government should provide an update on this. They are aware,” he concluded.
By PRNigeria
