Yusuf Bello| The chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari is dead.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina made the disclosure in a terse Tweet early Saturday morning.
The tweet read, “Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, passes on. May God rest his soul. Amen. Funeral arrangements to be announced soon.”
Adesina later issued a statement announcing the passage of the President’s chief of staff.
“The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari,” the statement read.
“The deceased had tested positive to the ravaging COVID-19, and had been receiving treatment. But he died on Friday, April 17, 2020. May God accept his soul.”
Adesina added that funeral arrangements would be announced shortly.
Buhari had appointed Kyari , who hailed from Borno state, as his chief of staff in 2015 and reappointed him in 2019.
He went into self-isolation in late March after testing positive for the disease.
He subsequently moved to Lagos for treatment in an an undisclosed facility.
Kyari’s death was announced shortly after the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control confirmed that 51 new cases of the highly contagious coronavirus were recorded in Nigeria on Friday.
Thirty-two of the cases were recorded in Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria, which brings to 493 the number of confirmed cases in the country.
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