Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, President Muhammadu has received the duo of Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
This is coming few moments after an Australian based Islamic cleric, Mohammed Tawhidi, popularly known as Imam of Peace called for President Buhari’s resignation over what he termed as his poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
The pictures and video of the President whose whereabouts had been put into question following the report that his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari tested Positive to Covid-19 were shared via the Presidency’s official Twitter handle, @NGRPresident.
VIDEO: Minister of Health @DrEOEhanire and Director General @NCDCgov, @Chikwe_I were at the State House (The Residence) this afternoon to brief President @MBuhari on Nigeria’s #COVID19 Situation. #Coronavirus
[Follow @NCDCgov @DigiCommsNG @NigeriaGov for regular updates] pic.twitter.com/6b3BZoJ0PQ
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) March 28, 2020
President @MBuhari receives #COVID19 briefing from Minister of Health @DrEOEhanire and DG @NCDCgov, @Chikwe_I at the State House | Saturday, March 28, 2020 #SocialDistancing #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/a6kIGdQI23
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) March 28, 2020
Many Nigerians are already riding on the wave of the call for Buhari’s resignation with the hashtag, #BuhariResign launched by Imam of peace generating over 76, 000 tweets on Nigeria’s Twitter space.
I want #BuhariResign to trend #1 on Nigerian Twitter and to be in the top 10 trends Worldwide. https://t.co/BuEQPBtJJ0
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) March 28, 2020
The Islamic cleric had on Friday slammed President Buhari over his failure to address Nigerians on the Coronavirus pandemic.
The President had not been seen in public since March 19 when he made a brief appearance at a gathering to commission federal emergency telephone lines in Abuja. Many have said his failure to address the public periodically like leaders of other countries have been doing in the hit of the Covid-19 has put paid to the rumours about his state of health.
In a series of tweets, Tawhidi also berated Buhari for what he described as his poor handling of terrorism in Nigeria especially in the North-East region where Boko Haram has killed thousands and displaced millions.
However, some of President Buhari’s media aides were quick to label the cleric as fraud saying he was being sponsored to attack the President.
One of them, Johannes Tobi shared a Twitter conversation he purportedly had with the Imam saying the latter retorted to blackmail when his request to meet the President in 2019 failed.
@Imamofpeace is a conman & jobber. Last year he reached out to me seeking audience with the President, that he could negotiate with IMN’s Zakzaky for the gov’t. His move was suspicious and questionable. His attack on Pres. Buhari is nothing short of cowardice & blackmail. pic.twitter.com/ZXdPjNVpFz
— Johannes Tobi W. (@Johannxs) March 27, 2020
According to the NCDC, 89 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Nigeria with only one death recorded so far.
A breakdown of cases by NCDC showed that Lagos has recorded 59 cases followed by FCT, 14.
8 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria, 7 in Lagos and 1 in Benue State.
As at 04:00 pm 28th March there are 89 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria with 1 death. pic.twitter.com/kbL7yIMiLs
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 28, 2020
The States with confirmed cases are Ogun- 3, Ekiti- 1, Oyo- 3, Edo- 2, Bauchi- 2, Osun-1, Rivers-1, Benue-1 and Enugu- 2
