The Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, Abba Kyari is dead. The Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on Media and Publicity has confirmed.
Abba Kyari contracted the deadly COVID-19 Virus and has been sick since it was reported earlier in March. He reportedly caught the virus on an official trip to the United Kingdom and Germany.
No other official information has been provided about the cause of death or where he died. However, the official spokesperson of the president Garba Shehu tweeted that,
“he had been receiving treatment after testing positive for COVID-19 but died on Friday, April 17, 2020” also announcing that funeral arrangements will be announced shortly.”
The news that Abba Kyari had tested positive for Covid-19 first broke out about 3 weeks ago, 10 days after he returned from an official trip to Germany during which he met with officials of Siemens in Munich to discuss Nigeria’s electricity expansion programme.
However, Kyari personally confirmed the news in a statement which he issued on March 29, the same day President Muhammadu Buhari, made his first national broadcast on the coronavirus pandemic and the measures to be taken by the Federal Government to contain the spread and mitigate the impact.
Going further in his statement, he disclosed that he was going to be transferred to Lagos from Abuja for treatment and expressed the hope that he will soon recover and get back to work. Kyari said he felt well and didn’t exhibit any signs of the disease.
Before his death, Mallam Abba Kyari, was one of President Buhari’s closest confidants.
Kyari, who has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, UK, also has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Law from the University of Cambridge also in the UK.
He was at various times Commissioner of Forestry and Animal Resources Borno State, Board Secretary of African International Bank Limited, Executive Director, Management Services, United Bank for Africa and later, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa.
May his soul rest in peace.
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