COVID-19: Sons of late Doctor accuse NCDC of manipulating their Dad’s result

The two sons of late Dr. Yakubu Aliyu, a practising Nedical Doctor in Daura, Katsina State, have alleged that the reports of their positive status for Coronavirus Disease were manipulated.
The two children spoke in separate videos obtained by PRNigeria, where they claimed that their father could not have tested positive and died of COVID-19.
The Katsina State Government confirmed the death of Yakubu.
The deceased, aged 60, died at the Nigeria Air Force Reference Hospital, Daura.
Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina had said the deceased owned a private hospital in Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown, and had visited his home state, Kogi, from where he travelled to Lagos State some weeks ago.
Nuhu Aliyu, one of the sons of the late Medical Doctor, accused officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control of manipulating the sample result of their father’s test.
In a short video, Nuhu described the report that his father contacted and died of coronavirus as fake, urging the general public to disregard it.
He disclosed that though personnel of NCDC in Katsina State stormed their house on Tuesday and took their samples for medical analysis, they were surprised to hear that three of them have also tested positive on the social media.
He said this was even without the public knowing the actual number of persons whose samples were taken in their family.
Nuhu said: “They have already concluded plans to come and pick me, my mother and brother for observation.
“But we don’t know where they intend to take us to, the kind of food they will give us and also the medication.
“That is why I am shooting this small video in case anything bad happens to us.”
In another amateur video, Abdulmalik Aliyu, another son of the late physician, said he also recently received news from his friends that he has COVID-19, even while the NCDC officials are yet to call him to confirm his status.
He said though their father just passed away, he did not die as a result of coronavirus.
Abdulmalik said: “Our late father did not die because he was infested with any coronavirus.
“He never had contact with COVID-19 patients, in the first place.
“While those he even had contact with have all been traced and none was said to have suffered from coronavirus.
“So they just capitalised on the fact that he is no more to lie about what killed him.”
Like his brother, he also urged the public to report his video to security agencies, should anything tragic happen to them.
Responding to the allegation of manipulation of results of COVID-19, a spokesperson of NCDC, Chukwuemeka Oguanuo, told PRNigeria that the issue of manipulation has been cleared several times by authorities, including the DG of the Centre, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, during the daily press briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
In an SMS, Oguanuo said the COVID-19 testing labs are accredited and provide verified results.
He said: “Some people can be in denial of their status, it’s psychological.
“The State Ministry of Health or the State Government should provide an update on this.
“They are aware.”