I didn’t contract coronavirus — Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Sunday said he neither contracted coronavirus nor was in isolation.

The minister, in a statement by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi, was dismissing a media report that he was among presidency officials who tested positive for the virus and were undergoing treatment.

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He said the report, first published by an online newspaper, was latched on by some mainstream “lapdog” media.

The statement read: “For the record, the Minister does not have COVID-19, hence he is neither in isolation nor receiving treatment anywhere. 

“The Minister was at the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, an extraordinary FEC meeting on Thursday and also witnessed the swearing-in of the Minister of State for Works and Housing on Friday. All these events took place at the Villa, where the correspondents of many media organizations are deployed.

 “In fact, the minister coordinated the post-FEC press briefing on Wednesday and Thursday. Could he have done this from

the imaginary isolation centre where he was consigned by a mischievous reporter?

“The minister was fully vaccinated and had also taken the booster shot which was a situation that offered him different layers of protection even if he contracts the virus.

“In the best tradition of journalism, we expect the online newspaper behind this fake news not only to retract the publication, but also to apologize to the minister for causing him such embarrassment, especially in a season of joy.”