Nigeria’s Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John has in the last few days has her health status shrouded in uncertainty.
Initial reports by some news medium claimed that the minister was poisoned culminating in her hospitalisation at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja.
According to the report, she was rushed to the hospital shortly after she started manifesting symptoms of poisoning, and had spent four days at the facility as of Friday morning.
A source in the ministry of tourism debunked the poison report, noting that the minister is only attending to malaria and nothing else.
The source added that Ade-John was responding to treatment, stressing that the minister, who just returned to the country following her appointment by President Bola Tinubu, has been struggling to acclimatise to the Nigerian environment.
The ministry source said Ade-John was only receiving treatment for malaria, averring that nobody in Nigeria is immune to the disease.
“The minister only has malaria. She is responding to treatment and she is in stable condition,” the source said.
“Don’t forget that malaria is a common sickness in Nigeria which everyone is prone to. But I can assure you that it is not more than that.
“She is still trying to acclimatise after many years outside the country.”
The Assistant Director Press in the ministry of tourism, Emem Mariam Ofiong, also debunked the claim that the minister was poisoned, saying that she only had malaria, was treated and had been stabilised.
“It is not true that the Minister was poisoned. She only had malaria and had been treated and is now stable,” Ofiong was quoted as saying.
