Following rumours that one of the Chinese doctors who arrived Nigeria to help in the fight against Coronavirus, has tested positive for the virus, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has spoken up to debunk it.
The Minister refuted the claim while speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) daily briefing on Wednesday, April 15.
Lai Mohammed who urged Nigerians to discard reports which is not from the daily briefings or the website of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), also debunked report of members of the National Assembly sharing a N700 million fund.
He said; “Whether members of the National Assembly are sharing N700 million, like I said, just as we are trying to fight and contain Coronavirus, a lot of energy is also being expended in fighting fake news.
“To the best of my knowledge, I’m not aware that any such money has been given to members of the National Assembly, but I know that fake news is not abating.
“This morning, there was a message that went viral, to the effect that one of the Chinese doctors tested positive and that news was supposed to have emanated from the Twitter handle of the federal government. I want to say, to the best of our knowledge here, there’s no such thing.
“I’ve also just received two hate dramas and other fake news while I was sitting here, which I’ve been unable to open. But we will continue always to debunk fake news and we’ll try our best to timely give you information about the COVID-19, either through our daily press briefings or through the website of the NCDC and the task force”
