Nigeria: Army generals test positive for COVID-19

No fewer than eighteen (18) Nigerian Army generals have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), according to Channels Television exclusive report.

Channels Television also reports that the infected military officers were said to have had contact with late Major General Olu Irefin who died from COVID-19 complications last week.

The affected senior army officers, according to military sources were attendees of the 2020 Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Besides, late General Irefin was said to have visited some of his colleagues at home before he attended the conference.

 

Thereafter, all the officers who attended the conference, their wives, and other members of their families who live with them, have been directed to isolate themselves for a week by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The sources further revealed that the affected senior army officers were mostly those who came from outside Abuja and have been tested by officials of the NCDC.

However, others who were in the nation’s capital have yet to take the test for the virus.

The venue of the aborted conference – the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Asokoro, as learnt has been decontaminated by health officials at the weekend

It will be recalled that Major General Irefin fell ill at the 2020 Chief of Army Staff Conference last week and was taken to the hospital.

He was later confirmed to be positive for COVID-19 and was receiving treatment before he died.

The late general was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Six Division of the Army in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.