Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu and 66 other residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
The state commissioner of information John Okiyi Kalu, confirmed the governor status in a statement on Monday after the governor.
Abia state recorded a total of 67 new cases of covid-19, making it the highest out of 260 new cases recorded in Nigeria on Sunday according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
”Recall that on Saturday, 30th May, 2020, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu volunteered his sample for COVID-19 test and subsequently directed members of the state Executive Council (EXCO) and those of the inter ministerial committee on COVID-19 to submit themselves for the same test. On Tuesday, 2nd June, 2020. The result of Governor Ikpeazu’s test returned negative,” Kalu said.
”On Thursday, 4th June, 2020, the Governor submitted another sample at NCDC laboratory for confirmation and the result returned positive, he added.
”As a result, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has gone into isolation, as required by relevant NCDC protocols, and he is being managed by a competent team of medical practitioners with a view to nursing him back to good health.”
In May, the state announced that Solomon Ogunji, its commissioner for environment, passed on at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, after a brief illness related to high blood pressure resulting from Covid-19 infection.
Ogunji was a senatorial aspirant in the 2019 general elections, seeking to represent Abia South on the platform of the PDP. He was appointed special adviser to Ikpeazu on urban renewal in 2015 and later commissioner for environment in the previous administration. Ogunji, who was a close political ally and confidant of the governor, was a member of the state’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19.
Ogunji’s death prompted a directive for mass testing of all government house workers in Abia state.
Ikpeazu would be the fourth Nigerian governor to test positive for Covid-19.
All the three governors – Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi – who tested positive for virus recovered within a month.
