The Lagos State government says it was an official of the federal government that gave it the erroneous information.
The Lagos State government has apologized for erroneously including the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, among those who had been in contact with the Liberian victim who died from the Ebola Virus Disease.
Patrick Sawyer, a senior ECOWAS employee in Liberia who had come to Nigeria to attend an ECOWAS conference in Calabar, died in Lagos, last week.
At a press conference, Monday, the Lagos State government had named Ms. Obi-Nnadozie as among the 15 people at the airport who had had direct contact with Mr. Sawyer before his death.
The others include three ECOWAS officials – a driver, a liaison officer and a protocol officer. Also in the list are two nursing staff and five airport handlers.
Before his death, Mr. Sawyer had direct contact with 59 persons, 44 of whom were at the hospital he was taken to when he fell ill, according to the Lagos State government.
But in a statement on Tuesday, the state government attributed the erroneous naming of the Nigerian ambassador to Liberia to the federal government official who also attended the press conference.
“We have since learnt that the official who travelled to Nigeria with the victim and who was mistaken for Her Excellency the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia was actually a representative of the ECOWAS President,” the state government said in the statement.
“We hereby tender our unreserved apologies to Her Excellency for the inconveniences this may have caused her both as an individual and a very high official and Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We, however wish to state here that the error was made by the official of the Federal Government who was at the briefing on Monday and provided the information at the Lagos Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja,”
the statement added.
At Monday’s press briefing, Jide Idris, the Lagos State Health Commissioner, said that 20 per cent of those that came in contact with the deceased had been physically screened.
“The private hospital (First Consultant medical Centre) was
demobilised and primary source of infection eliminated. The patient has been cremated and the ash will be transferred to the Liberian government whenever the need arises.
Decontamination process in all affected areas has commenced,” Dr. Idris had said.
Speaking of the measures taken by the state and federal state
authorities to combat an outbreak of the disease, Mr. Idris explained that an incident command centre to coordinate the rapid respond team on the field had been established.
He said five working groups were also formed namely: Contact Tracing, Surveillance and Laboratory, Health Education and Social Mobilization, Case Management and Infection Prevention and Control, Logistics, and Data Managemen