Director of University of Ilorin Health Services and member of Unilorin Coronavirus Prevention Committee, Dr Rasheed Adekeye Odunola has debunked the rumour going around that four foreign students of the University of Ilorin have been tested for Covid 19.
Dr Odunola described the report as fake, subjective and far from the truth, saying that the rumour was a calculated attempt by some enemies of progress to smear the good name of the University.
He said either national nor international student of the University of Ilorin has been tested for Covid 19.
He said the report was a figment of the imagination of the writer, adding that the report was not only cooked by the writer but also an unfounded news.
He admitted that students of the University were given health education on the preventive measures to curtain the spread of the virus in the state and campus in particular, stressing that no test was never carried out.
Dr Odunola maintained that University of Ilorin does not have approved laboratory to carry out Covid 19 test, saying that even Kwara state does not have either.
He disclosed that all foreign students of the University have been on campus since October 2019 when the session began, adding that none of them has neither traveled home nor received visitors since that time till now.
He therefore advised parents and members of the public to remain calm and not panic, pointing out that University authority was working round the clock to ensure that the virus does not spread to the state let alone the University campus.
Meanwhile, the management of the University of Ilorin has described as baseless, unfounded and a figment of some people’s imagination rumours trending on social media that some students of the University had been tested positive to the Coronavirus.
This denial was contained in a statement signed by the University’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Kunle Akogun, and distributed to newsmen in Ilorin on Thursday (March 19, 2020).
Mr. Akogun,who quoted the Chairman of the University’s Committee on the Prevention of Coronavirus, Dr. Idayat Adenike Durotoye, said that “no member of the University community has contacted the disease, which has not even been reported anywhere in Kwara State.” The University said that what happened was that international students of the University were, like their colleagues from Nigeria, advised to seek necessary advice on the infectious disease, which they promptly did at the University Medical Center as regards what they should do to avoid getting in contact with the disease.
Mr Akogun added that neither has the University conducted any specific test nor has any of its students or staff tested positive to the disease as there is no basis for that.
While assuring stakeholders of the University that there is no cause for alarm, Mr. Akogun urged the purveyors of fake news to desist from their dangerous pastime, which he said is a disservice to the peace and progress of the nation and humanity.
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