New Telegraph

Benue COVID-19 vice chair dies of coronavirus

  • Ortom orders fumigation of Govt House

 

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State at the weekend ordered the immediate fumigation of the entire Government House following growing cases of COVID-19.

 

The directive came as the Vice-Chairman of the state’s Action Committee on COVID-19, Prof. Godwin Achinge, yesterday died from complications associated with the virus.

 

New Telegraph correspondent, who visited the seat of power in Makurdi, the state capital, at the weekend, saw a team of medical personnel carrying out the fumigation of the Governor’s Office, his residential quarters and lodges.

 

Already, top government functionaries, who tested positive for the coronavirus, are now at different isolation centres in the state, receiving treatment.

 

But Achinge, who was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Benue State University, Makurdi, reportedly gave up the ghost at a hospital facility in Jos, Plateau State where he was taken to after he tested positive for COVID-19 early last week.

 

Achinge’s death has brought to six, the number of those who have died of the pandemic in the state. The daily update as posted by the COVID-19 committee on Saturday gave the number of deaths as five with 97 out of the 888 cases tested to have returned positive.

A member of the state Action Committee on COVID-19, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed Achinge’s demise yesterday. “Yes, we lost Prof. Achinge, the Deputy Chairman of the state’s Action Committee on COVID-19 this afternoon,” the member said on the phone.

 

However, when contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and member of the state Action Committee on COVID-19, Mrs. Ngunan Addingi, said she was yet to confirm the report from the chairman of the committee, who is also the state Deputy Governor, Benson Abounu (an engineer).

 

Ortom had, on Saturday, named Achinge among the over 30 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the state in the last few days. Ortom’s wife and son, the Secretary to the Benue State Government, Prof. Tony Ijohor and Chief of Staff, Mr. Terwase Orbunde have tested positive for COVID- 19.

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