The senior Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, said Monday that the late medical doctor, Stella Adadevoh, who died after contracting the dreaded ebola virus disease from the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, cannot be given national honours posthumously, as it would be unlawful.

Okupe was responding to queries from Nigerians on why the doctor’s name should be missing from the list of potential national awardees as published by the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.

“I hv (have) rcvd (received) enquiries as 2(to) why dr adadevoh was not included in d (the) honors list. By law establishing it, nat. honors (National Honours) cannot be given posthumously,” the president’s spokesman tweeted.

He hinted that the late doctor will receive a befitting honour and recognition in no distant time, stressing that there is no need to break the law in her favour.

“At d (the) appropiate (appropriate) time dr adadevoh will rcv (receive) a befitting honor…no need to break d (the) law when we can still achieve same result without violation of our own law,” Okupe said in the tweet.

It would appear that the presidential aide is not conversant with the law guiding the award of national honours because as recent as last year, human right lawyer Gani Fawehinmi, Afrobeat creator Fela Anikulapo Kuti and winner of the annulled Presidential election, Moshood Abiola, were all given National award posthumously.

Adadevoh died on August 19, 2014 from the Ebola disease contracted from Sawyer. She was the first grandchild of Sarah Idowu Abigail Adadevoh, nee Macaulay, making her a great granddaughter of the late nationalist Herbert Macaulay described as the founder of Nigerian nationalism.