By Nma Shekwolo -Minna

The Niger State government has denied a report that a woman named Bilkisu Bello who slumped in the Governor’s Office on Monday died while she was with the state chief executive, Babangida Aliyu

According to a statement signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Danladi Ndayebo, described the report as completely untrue and demanded a retraction of the story.

“We therefore demand a full retraction of the totally false report which demeans the office of the Governor of Niger State,” the statement said.

However, sources say that Bello, who was alone with the governor in the office at the time of the incident, was already dead at the time she arrived the Minna general hospital and that Governor  Aliyu was distorting facts in order to cover up the embarrassment that the incident could bring to his administration.

Bello’s daughter, Aisha Mohammed, said her mother, a civil servant, had suffered from a heart disease which was diagnosed more than five years ago.

Recalling her last moment with her mom, Aisha said she had dropped her mother off at the Government House, but that when she arrived the office 20 minutes after she spoke to her mother on the phone to pick her up, she was referred to the Intensive Care Unit, ICU, of the Minna General Hospital where the news of her death was broken to her.

“On getting there, people were trying to hide her death from me because at the time I got there, she had died. But my dad eventually called me from Kaduna to tell me of the death. He said that his younger brother who was there when she died called to inform him,” she said.

She said Governor Aliyu and his entourage also visited the family to condole with them.