COVID-19: Worries, Questions Over Atiku’s Son

By Charles Igbo

Anxiety and worries reign supreme amongst friends and associates of the family of former Vice President, and Presidential Candidate of the PDP in the 2015 Presidential Elections, Abubakar Atiku.

Over  five weeks ( March 19) after his son, Mohammed Atiku, tested positive for Coronavirus, little or nothing has been heard of his situation.

His father had announced his positive status to Nigerians, via his official Twitter handle, and asked for prayers.

Mohammed Atiku, 31, is believed to have contracted the Virus while on a business trip abroad. He arrived Nigeria through Lagos, and proceeded on an Aero flight to Abuja after a round of meeting in Lagos. While in Lagos, he stayed at his private residence.

It was in Abuja that he manifested the symptoms of the disease, and was promptly moved to an Isolation Centre.

Governor of Bauchi state, Bala Mohammed, who announced he contracted the disease from him, on the Aero flight, on shaking hands with him, an allegation the younger Atiku denied, has since recovered,  and discharged.

But nothing has been heard of the young businessman-son of the former Vice President.

Anxiety peaked a couple of days ago when an unconfirmed story made the rounds that he had been moved to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. An Online site, Ebonyitvnews, was the first to carry the story.

The story stated: “After undergoing all the necessary medication, including immune boosting viamins, he has continued to test positive for the Virus”

It added that he had been taken to the ICU for more attention.

But a source dismissed the ICU story as false. The source admitted that Atiku still had the Virus in his body , but is very stable, and recovering fast. “There is no particular number of days for recovery. In some people the Virus can be stubborn, but they would disappear. He is in good hands.

Yet, another source insisted that “the youngman has been discharged from the hospital after recovering. The family did not want to go public with his discharge considering the interest it generated when his father announced he had tested positive for the disease.”

There is no confirmation from the family, but opinion is that Atiku, who donated the sum of  N50, 000, 000m to the FG to fight the disease,  would not shy away from sharing the joy of his son’s recovery with Nigerians, especially, as he was the one who made his positive status public.