Ex-Minister Adoke tests negative for COVID-19 after two positive results

A former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, has tested negative for COVID-19 after previously testing positive for the disease on two occasions within one week.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that a repeat PCR COVID-19 test carried out on Mr Adoke at a laboratory of Emirates Specialty Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), turned out negative on Sunday.

It will be recalled that Mr Adoke was on December 11, 2020 granted permission by the Federal High Court in Abuja where he is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on money laundering charges, to travel to UAE for medical check-up.

The trial judge, Inyang Ekwo, directed the former Minister of Justice to return to Nigeria before the date scheduled for the continuation of his trial.

Already, one of the criminal cases in which Mr Adoke is being prosecuted along with a businessman, Aliyu Abubakar, has been scheduled to resume Monday.

But it was gathered that the former minister has not been able to return to the country as a result of his positive COVID-19 status which only turned negative after a repeat test on Sunday.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Adoke had since January 2, 2021 undergone four COVID-19 tests.

The first test carried out on January 2 was said to be negative.

He was said to have subsequently tested positive on two occasions but remained asymptomatic.

The former minister went through another test at the laboratory of Emirates Specialty Hospital in Dubai on Sunday and the result turned out to be negative.

A copy of the last repeat test carried out on Sunday read in part, “Not detected indicates that SARS-CoV-2 RNA is either not present in the specimen or is present at a concentration below the assay’s lower limit of detection.

“This result may be influenced by the stage of the infection and the quality of the specimen collected for testing.”

Nigeria’s COVID-19 protocol requires travelers flying into the country from other parts of the world to present a negative PCR COVID-19 test close to the day of traveling before boarding.

The country is currently seeing a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in a second wave which has forced the Federal Government to reintroduce some restrictions in public places in order to contain the spread.