COVID-19 Visits Tinubu’s Residence; Aides Test Positive; One Dies

By Adesina Soyooye

After days in self-denial, a National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, finally admitted on Monday that the deadly COVID-19 actually found its way into his Boudillion, Ikoyi residence.

Tinubu’s Chief Security Officer, ASP Lateef Raheem, had died last Friday. While many people, including a couple of his aides suspected that Raheem, who had been with Tinubu since 1999, when he first became Lagos Governor, died of COVID-19, an official release from Tinubu’s camp insisted he died of complications from diabetes and high blood pressure. He was at work on Monday, and passed on a few days later.

When the news broke that Tinubu had gone on self-quarantine, based on Raheem’s sudden death, he had quickly denied it.

But, on Monday, he walked back the line.

In a release which, at once, smacked of excitement and sombreness, Tinubu announced that he and his wife, Remy, a Senator, had tested negative to the disease, but revealed that his COS had died of it. He, also, said that another of his aides had tested positive for the disease, and was quickly evacuated by the NCDC for treatment.

A release by his Media Aide, Tunde Rahman, said that following the death of Raheem, a test was carried out to confirm the cause of death. It turned out he died of the Virus when the result came back on Monday. He also disclosed that as a precautionary measure, others, including Tinubu and his wife, took the test.

The results came back negative, except that of one other aide.

What is not, however, known is if NCDC/WHO protocols and guidelines were followed at the burial of Raheem, given the initial denial, and, since, as a Muslim faithful, ha was buried immediately after his passing.