Benue govt, UK returnee disagree over COVID-19 status

Posted by News Express | 31 March 2020 | 1,638 times

•Governor Ortom

By HOPE ABAH EMMANUEL, Makurdi

The Benue State Government and a female returnee from the United Kingdom who tested positive for COVID-19 in the state on Monday disagreed over her status.

Governor Samuel Ortom had on Saturday alongside the members of the State Emergency Response Committee announced the female as the first confirmed case of Coronavirus in the state.

But, in what appears to be a melodrama, the UK returnee took to the social media to deny her confirmed status, accusing the state government of political mischief and setting up the stage to sufficiently embarrass her.

The woman, whose name was given as Susan Okpe, 62, also alleged that the state government falsely declared her an index case and moved further to quarantine her against her wish, stressing that she showed no symptom of the virus as they have made people to believe.

“I told him (referring to Benue’s Deputy Governor) that if the state is insisting that I am ill, I should be taken to Abuja to be tested. I have never in my life seen a staged drama with human life and politics like this before.

“I want the world, Nigerians, Benue state to hear my side and verify that I am not a COVID-19 positive. I left my children behind in London and they are healthy till this moment,” Okpe said. Reacting to the allegation on Monday night, the state’s Deputy Governor, Benson Abounu, who now heads the Coronavirus team in the state, explained that no one even among his team knew the lady by name as at the time her sample alongside a 21-year-old returnee from the virus pandemic country was taken to Abuja for testing. (Daily Trust)

Source: News Express