Lagos State government on Thursday night retracted its earlier claim that one of the returnees from Dubai, died of COVID-19, according to Nigerian Tribune.

 This happened after other returnees, quarantined at an isolation centre in Lekki, had protested in a viral video clip, accusing the Lagos State Health Commissioner of lying. 

The frustrated Nigerians also rebuked the official reception they received as inhuman, claiming no one had come visiting, to check on their welfare. It was also claimed in the video that the deceased boarded ailing, though certified fit to fly, without any attribution to COVID-19 in his diagnosis. 

The deceased reportedly fainted twice in Dubai, before he was eventually evacuated alongside others. The state commissioner for health, Professor Akin Abayomi, in a tweet last night, explained the circumstances leading to their earlier official stance on the returnee’s death.

 According to him, “I hereby inform the general public that the Nigerian who recently returned from Dubai as part of a group of returnees who were placed in a COVID-19 isolation program in Lekki developed complications and was transferred to one of our facilities where he died.

“Because of the sudden nature of his demise and without any prior knowledge of his multiple preexisting conditions it was presumed to be a COVID-19 related death, pending confirmation by COVID-19 gold standard test.“This presumptive attribution is a precaution to ensure the safe clinical management of the patient and subsequent handling of the corpse.

The definitive COVID-19 gold standard test has turned out to be negative for the COVID-19 infection and his death is no longer considered to have been attributable to COVID-19.”