Just In: Dokpesi's comment on Covid-19 raises doubts on actual cause of Kyari's demise

Founder of DAAR Communications, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower FM, Raymond Dokpesi, has recently made headlines when he said he had doubts over covid-19 and would need an expert to convince him on the difference between covid-19 and malaria.

Dokpesi who recently recovered from covid-19, said he was left confused as medications administered to him and other covid-19 patients, were malaria medications.


He said: “I still have doubts in my mind and I need to be educated. What’s the difference between COVID-19 and malaria? Every drug we were given were malaria medications.

“A number of persons who tested positive were checked in reputable labs, hospitals in Abuja and were found to have malaria parasites in their blood streams. When did malaria become synonymous with COVID-19?”

The comment by Dokpesi raises doubts on whether or not late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari, actually died of covid-19.



Human rights lawyer and activist, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, was first to call for investigation into the circumstances surrounding the treatment and death of late chief of staff to Buhari, Abba Kyari.

Falana in his request to the federal government said his call for an investigation became necessary following the disclosure that Kyari was being treated in a private hospital. He said this latest development contradicts the health minister, Osagie Ehanire, who had said no private hospital has been accredited to manage COVID-19 case in Nigeria, and is also a breach of the fundamental rule of COVID-19 guidelines on the treatment of persons with the virus in Nigeria.


He said, "While the NCDC has directed anyone who tests positive to COVID-19 to report for treatment in isolation centres for treatment and monitoring former Chief of Staff to the President, the late Mr Abba Kyari, was allowed to be treated in a cardiological centre, a private hospital in Ikoyi, Lagos State.

"Since then some influential people who tested positive to COVID-19 are said to have insisted on treatment in private hospitals without official authorisation.


"Unfortunately, Mr Kyari passed on last Friday. Embarrassed by the unfortunate development, the Lagos State Government was reported to have said that the hospital was granted permission to treat COVID-19 patients.

"But the Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has categorically asserted that: “As at today, there is no private hospital that has been accredited to manage COVID-19 case in Nigeria. There is none in Abuja here that I know of. But I think Lagos is looking at some accredited hospitals and there is one large hospital in Lagos that has called me that it wants to become a Coronavirus treatment centre."



"Since no private hospital has been accredited by the NCDC to treat COVID-19 patients, the death of Mr Abba Kyari ought to be investigated by the Federal Government."

While concerns raised by Dokpesi came as a surprise to many who expressed disappointment over his comment, it however, added fuel to doubts over the presence of covid-19 in the country as Nigerians seek an end to the current lockdown placed by the Buhari administration.