The Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has reportedly tested negative for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), according to a tweet Thursday afternoon.
The minister, who has been on voluntary self-isolation since Tuesday over contact she had with persons who tested positive for COVID-19, made the disclosure a day after she informed the public that she had given her “samples to test for COVID-19.
While in self-isolation, Aliyu had said: “I am busy working and liasing with the six Area Council chairmen in the territory on prevention and sensitisation of people in the area council and satellite towns.”
Mrs Aliyu joins a cadre of high government functionaries who have been or are being tested for the infection, the most high profile being the President and Vice President, Messrs Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo, both of whom have tested negative.
The most high profile government official so far to have tested positive for the virus has been the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, a fact which prompted a flurry of self-isolation actions by Presidential Villa staffers, Villa correspondents and some state governors. Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has meanwhile tested positive for the virus, the only governor so far confirmed in Nigeria.
