The Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state, has refuted the allegations making round in some quarters that its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone, had tested positive for coronavirus.
According to a release from the University’s Acting Head, Information and Public Relations Unit, Mrs Chika Gladys Ene, the reports which is being circulated on social media was untrue and fallacious as Prof. Esimone neither traveled out of the country in the past four months nor had contact with affected persons.
“The attention of the authority of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka has been drawn to the story making rounds that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Okechukwu Esimone, FAS tested positive to COVID-19, the deadly coronavirus and has been quarantined.
“Much as we would not want to join issues with the peddlers of this story, it had become imperative that we make the following clarifications. The vice chancellor has not traveled out of the country in the past four months.
“The vice chancellor has not had contact with anyone who have tested positive to COVID-19 in Nigeria. The vice chancellor partook in the recent Convocation ceremonies of the university in sound health and has been discharging his duties in sound health since this year till date.
“The University’s Chinese teachers who traveled home last December were advised to remain in their country pending the containment of the COVID-19 spread, and they have not returned to Nigeria ever since. Our Confucius Institute has equally suspended teaching since February 2020.
“Members of the public should dismiss those stories as they are not only untrue, but a calculated attempt to malign the image and reputation of the vice chancellor and the University, at large,” it said.
