The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his political associates and personal aides were on Saturday tested for the COVID-19 pandemic following the death of his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Lateef Raheem.
Raheem who died in the early hours of Friday after falling ill on Monday, but he had a history of high blood pressure and diabetes.
Report obtained that before his burial on Friday, specimens were taken from his body for laboratory tests to determine if he was infected with COVID-19.
On Saturday, specimens were also taken from Tinubu and his personal aides. Results are expected on Monday, sources told TheCable.
In a tribute, Tinubu applauded the late police officer who had been with him before he became governor of Lagos state in 1999.
“Lateef reported for work on Monday. Feeling a bit under the weather, he went home to rest. We spoke on Wednesday by phone. He was in fine spirits and was looking forward to resuming work,” he wrote.
“We remained together during my two-terms as governor of Lagos. We have been together since then. Wherever I was, you could be sure Lateef was nearby making certain of my security and that all was working properly and efficiently.”
“I felt nothing but profound shock, and then the emptiness of deep loss when I was awakened early Friday that my most trusted security aide had died and that I would never see him again. I did not know the Wednesday conversation would be our last. The pain of his loss is acute.”
“To say I will miss Lateef is to understate my feeling for him and what our relationship had matured into. Someone may have to fill his position but they can never truly take his place for Lateef was one-of-a-kind.”
When Raheem was seconded to Tinubu ahead of the 1999 governorship election, he was a corporal and had only a secondary school certificate, “Because of his thirst for knowledge and personal improvement, he subsequently acquired a university degree. He did not stop there. He kept growing. When he passed, Lateef had risen to the level of Assistant Superintendent of Police, ” Tinubu noted in his tribute message.
Tinubu explained further that the late Raheem believed Nigeria could become better and that government had a vital role to play in enhancing security and prosperity so that the lives of the people might improve.
