Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, his deputy, Ude Oko-Chukwu and members of the state executive council have submitted their samples to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for COVID-19 test.
The state Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi-Kalu, stated this on Monday.
He added that the decision became imperative after it was discovered that the late exco and member of the Inter-ministerial Committee on COVID-19, Chief Solomon Ogunji, who died on Saturday, May 23, 2020, contracted the disease before he passed on.
Okiyi-Kalu said, “Following the outcome of tests conducted on close family members of the late member of the state executive council and member of the Inter-ministerial Committee on COVID-19, Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, directed members of the committee and the exco who might have recently come in contact with the late commissioner to immediately undergo COVID-19 tests and isolate themselves thereafter pending the outcome of the tests.”
Our correspondent gathered that on Monday, about 33 members of the state executive council volunteered themselves for sample collection, which a source said was done at the state Commissioners Quarters, Umuahia.
No deaths had been recorded in the state from the pandemic except by inference of commissioner’s death who did not test positive while alive.
