John Adams, Minna

A driver of a former governorship candidate in the 2019 governorship election in Niger State (name withheld) is currently on the run after his boss has tested positive for coronavirus and being in an isolation centre in one of the south-west states.

The drive who was due to be tested after his boss was confirmed positive sneaked out of the isolation centre in the south west state and ran to Bida in Niger State and his whereabouts have raised serious concern in government circles in the state.

The Niger state Commissioner for Health and Hospital Services, Mohammed Makunsidi who confirmed this development to newsmen in Minna on Wednesday said the driver had escaped from isolation centre where he was being managed to Bida area of the state explaining that the manhunt for the man had intensified.

Makunsidi disclosed that officials of his ministry had been deployed to track down the suspect and take him back to the isolation centre.

“We heard of the arrival of a driver or somebody that is said to have tested positive for coronavirus and is being managed at an isolation centre. We heard that he escaped to Bida, so we are after him now.

“Our members of the state task force on Covid-19 and officials of Ministry of Health and Hospital Services are in Bida area of the state to locate him and make sure he does what the Nigeria Centre for Decease Control has asked him to do.”

He said that two other persons who arrived in Kontagora area of the state from United Kingdom (UK) and Canada have been quarantined and are undergoing medical tests for the virus “because they are from presumed areas of infection.”

The commissioner pointed out that another man from Kagara area of the state has also been taken to an isolation centre in Minna due to an outcry from his community that he might have come in contact with Chinese nationals working at Zungeru hydro plant “even though he has not travelled out of Minna for over a year now.”

He said that the man was having fever and sour throat and that triggered the fear by the community and the suspicion that he had coronavirus. “Ordinarily, this does not fit into test definition. But nevertheless, because of the outcry of the community, we have to take out the man into our isolation centre at Minna General Hospital and we are testing him for coronavirus,” he explained.

Also speaking, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Chairman of the state task force on Covid-19, Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, said his members would redouble their efforts at tracing all those believed to have made contact with positive index cases.

He lamented that at the national level, there were still over 6,000 people who had made contact with Covid-19 positive cases, but they could not still be traced. “These 6,000 have the potential to infect triple that number. In Niger State, we have been very prompt and we will not allow such people to mingle with our people,” he said.

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