MOHAMMED Abubakar, son of Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria has warned against adverse effects of fake news as it could possibly aggravate the health condition of confirmed cases of COVID-19 disease.
Abubakar in a 5 minutes 22 seconds footage narrated how his co-residents in the estate became purveyor of false information when he was announced as the index case of the pandemic in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Currently, I’m on my 12th day here. I hope to be out soon. Perhaps when my next test is taken and the results are favourable, I’ll hopefully be on my way out,” Abubakar said.
“One thing I will like to speak to Nigerians is that fake news is very bad. It compounds your problem if you are in a vulnerable situation. Perhaps, being from a political family, I didn’t really feel that pain as much but people who are more vulnerable it could really affect their health and their immune system as well,” he claimed.
“So, let me urge people out there to be very circumspect the way they treat information. Let them be careful in spreading information that is false. These things aggravate our health conditions. In my case, even people within the estate I live in were purveyors of fake news. It is quite unfortunate but I’m not here to talk about the specifics.”
His father, who was Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate during the last 2019 election on Thursday, shared the video to seek how relevant stakeholders and other individuals could learn from his experience and team up to collectively work to end the scourge in the country.
“My son, Mohammed Atiku shares his experience with COVIDー19. Together, we can learn from his experience and work to defeat this pandemic for our common good,” he tweeted.
It could be recalled that Atiku broke the news of his son contracting the COVID-19 virus on his verified Twitter handle. Different reports were also published regarding claims that Abubakar visited clubs and spread the infection shortly after his arrival from abroad.
Abubakar, however, advised the public to desist from sharing unverified information and not to politicise the COVID-19 pandemic, in a time like this.
My son, @Mo_Atiku shares his experience with #COVIDー19. Together, we can learn from his experience and work to defeat this pandemic for our common good. pic.twitter.com/h4lJ7xIPsx
— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) April 2, 2020
He said the essence of sharing the video was to encourage the public and see how the current medical challenge could be addressed.
The executive director in charge of business development, the Priam Group, emphasised need to give special recognition to medical workers as they often lay their lives at the frontline.
He said the workers deserve prayers from Nigerians and also require needed support.
“…thankfully, as you have seen the statistics, most people will be fine from this. But we can’t ignore the few that will not be fine. Let’s work hard, let’s support the government and comply with directives from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Federal and State governments so that they can overcome this challenging sooner or later,” he stated.
“Moving on, I’ll like us to pray and show our medical staff a lot of supports. They are on the frontline, they are risking their lives. I have seen it first-hand how close they get to patients and how exposed they are. We need to pray that none of them gets infected. Nothing befalls them and their families because they are our backbone.
“We have to be thankful to them and we have to be thankful to the authorities who are not necessarily on the frontline but playing a lot of roles in other aspects. In essence, Nigerians, let’s come together and put aside politics to defeat this pandemic. We can do it and we can do it very effectively if we work together.”
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at oadanikin@icirnigeria.org. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin