TRENDING NOW: COVID-19 DEATH TOLL CLOCKS 493 AS ABBA KYARI SUCCUMBS

Nigeria’s President is in mourning as his very trusted Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari is dead.

The highly revered strategist reportedly died of the novel coronavirus pandemic on Friday in a yet to be named private Health facility in Lagos State.

The Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adeshina disclosed this early on Saturday morning in a tweet from his verified Twitter handle.

According to Adeshina in his tweet, “Funeral arrangements to be announced soon”.

However, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu revealed that the late Abba Kyari died on Friday. Sources within the corridors of power in the nation’s capital, Abuja say he was suspected to have contracted the novel coronavirus following his visited to Germany in early March.

It was only after his death that Shehu confirmed that Kyari had died of coronavirus.

Information in the social circuit had reported that the Chief of Staff to the President had fallen ill and was reportedly flown out of the country for treatment but other sources had maintained that the well grounded politician was admitted into a private health care facility in Lagos.

Garba Shehu disclosed that, “the deceased had tested positive to the ravaging COVID-19, and had been receiving treatment”.

Abba Kyari, it will be recalled, was closest person in the cabinet to the President and while inaugurating his ministers in August, President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered all the Ministers to henceforth, make requests for meetings with him through his now-late Chief of Staff.

As at the time reports hits various stands that the now late Kyari had tested positive, several other reports also alleged that the President had also tested for the virus but that his test came out negative. A number of top Nigerian politicians, some of whom met Kyari after his return from Germany, also took the test with many of them testing positive to the COVID-19.

Some of the governors who took the test and came out positive are; Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi and Seyi Makinde of Oyo with the results coming out positive.

While Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde have since recovered, same cannot be said of Nasir el-Rufai who recently disclosed that he again tested positive.