Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, Wednesday dismissed reports that he had contact with his Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Diri. who stated these during a visit to the state Coronavirus Isolation Wards at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) in Okolobiri, Yenagoa local government area of the state, urged the people of Bayelsa to remain calm despite the growing cases of coronavirus in the country.
He said: “I had no link with Bala Muhammed and Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Buhari when cases of the outbreak of the pandemic were recorded in Nigeria. What happened was that in our National Executive Council meeting we normally sit in alphabetical order. After Bauchi is Bayelsa, and on that Thursday last week, that we had the meeting I had seat next to the Bauchi governor.
“But at that time he had not tested positive to the Covid-19. And before that meeting, he had not had any contact with Atiku’s son or Abba Kyari. As a matter of fact, Kyari was not in that meeting. We were told that he was somewhere in Germany.
“So, I am even taken by surprise, where that speculation that I had contact with the Chief of Staff is coming from. As for the governor of Bauchi, he sat next to me because we are neighbours due to the sitting arrangement of our meeting but before the meeting he had not met with the Chief of Staff.”