A rumour about the purported death of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has started making the rounds as she remains incommunicado for the third straight week.

Following enquiries by anxious Nigerians who wanted to know if the story of the First Lady’s alleged death is true or not, News Express put a call across to Dr. Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, around noon. His phone rang but was not picked.

News Express then sent a text message to Dr. Abati, requesting his comment on the news. About four hours later, the presidential spokesman is yet to reply even though the phone showed that the message was delivered. Dr. Abati had on Tuesday evening last week (Sept. 4) dismissed Dame Jonathan’s reported illness as a rumour after News Express and some other media reported her medical trip to Germany.

As reported by News Express on Sept. 5, a spokesperson for Horst Schmidt Klinik, the hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Dame Jonathan is believed to be receiving treatment, had revealed that she was in a bad state of health when she arrived the hospital for treatment two weeks ago.

The official disclosed that initial records showed that the Nigerian President’s wife had earlier been treated for food poisoning back home before being brought to Horst Schmidt Klinik, where she underwent a major surgery for a ruptured appendix to remove the poisons in her intestine.

Though admitting that Dame Jonathan travelled to Germany, presidency spokesmen had claimed that she went for a rest but kept sealed lips on her whereabouts.

Horst Schmidt Klinik is gradually becoming a choice hospital of Nigerian top government officials. It was the same hospital that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua once received for kidney-related ailments.

*Photo: Dame Jonathan