Tourism Minister not poisoned – Ministry
State Correspondent
The Ministry of Tourism has debunked the report in the media, which claimed that the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John was poisoned and rushed to the hospital.
When Vanguard contacted the Ministry, the Assistant Director Press in the Ministry, Emem Mariam Ofiong debunked the claim that the minister was poisoned but confirmed that she had malaria, was treated and had been stabilized.
Her words, “It is not true that the Minister was poisoned, she only had malaria and had been treated and is now stable.”
It will be recalled that an online media report had it that the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, has been reportedly hospitalised in the nation’s capital, Abuja, over alleged poisoning and was undergoing treatment at the Federal Medical Centre in Jabi, Abuja.
It reads: “Lola Ade-John, 60, was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, shortly after she started manifesting symptoms of her poisoning. She has spent four days at the facility as of Friday morning,” family sources familiar with Ade-John’s ordeal told Peoples Gazette.
“Ade-John, a banker and tech investor, has been on a machine to aid her breathing, adding that the specifics as to what substance she ingested and how could not be immediately ascertained,” said the report.
The report further said that, “Her worsening situation has further set the family against the government, with the permanent secretary of her ministry said to be in disagreement as to whether she should continue receiving treatment at a public hospital or be moved to a better-equipped private facility downtown.
The permanent secretary, Ngozi Onwudike, was said to have insisted that the minister should not be transferred because the FMC is a public hospital and its services wouldn’t attract substantial charges to the government, a position her family rebuffed.
But they remained with her as they could not raise funds to move her to a private hospital, our sources said. A phone number for the permanent secretary did not connect on Friday morning.
“A spokesperson for the FMC did not immediately return a request seeking comments about Ms Ade-John’s condition.”
The minister recently assumed office as the first indigenous minister of Tourism after the splitting of the defunct ministry of information and Culture by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu into three: Ministry of Information and National Orientation; ministry of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy and Ministry of Tourism.
In her welcome address, she pledged to transform the Ministry into global appelation and to make it a major economic earning to the Nigeria economy.
And she is among the 48 ministers appointed by the President in August.
(Vanguard)
