Family members of a COVID-19 patient allegedly invaded an isolation centre at the Federal Medical Center, Asaba, Delta State, on Monday and escaped with their loved one, SaharaReporters has learnt.

Our correspondent gathered that the patient identified as Michael Mordi, a 53-year-old Chief Nursing Officer in Central Hospital, Agbor, who is said to have tested positive for Coronavirus on May 23, 2020 and was admitted at the Federal Medical Center, Asaba, on May 24, was neglected and abandoned without food and medication. 

A family member of the alleged victim confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters. 

According to the family source, the health officials refused to give the result of the test carried out on him for Mordi to know his true status but kept on telling him he was positive. 

“The state government is not being sincere on this issue of COVID-19 pandemic. So many innocent citizens being forced into isolation centres don’t really have the disease but that’s not to say its not real. The state government is making us believe its not real because of the way and manner they are forcing people into isolation centres. Our brother is a health worker too and knows what is involved in the game too.

“Because of the ill treatment the state government and her health officials were giving our brother, hence we stormed the isolation centre at FMC, Asaba, and carried our brother home. How can you take someone to a place without showing him his test result, no food, no medication and no proper care and you expect such person to still be alive if he is left in that kind of hostile environment without food and good care right? They want to kill our brother and later count him among the deaths recorded in Delta State. We say no.”

Meanwhile, reacting to the development, the Delta State Government through the Ministry of Health, expressed displeasure over the uncooperative stance of the COVID-19 Patient. 

In a statement, Commissioner for Health, Mordi Ononye, stated that since the admission of Mordi, he had been very aggressive and threatened caregivers and also rejected his medications.

He said, “At about 6pm on June 1, 2020, against all medical advice, Mordi obviously consenting, was forcefully removed from the treatment centre by seven men who claimed to be his relatives and they did not wear any protective coverings therefore, constituting a danger to their own health and that of populations and communities with which they come in contact.”

He called for the immediate return of the patient to the treatment center for proper care and advised those, who have been exposed to him to immediately go into supervised self quarantine over the next 14 days.