Information and culture minister, Lai Mohammed, has said that the COVID-19 kits donated to Nigeria by Jack Ma, Chinese billionaire, are not contaminated.
Mohammed decried the spread of fake news on coronavirus across social media platforms.
Speaking at the presidential task force (PTF) media briefing on Thursday, he said fake news constitutes a distraction to ongoing efforts to curb the spread of the disease.
“The spike of fake news is distracting our fight against COVID-19 and this is quite unhelpful,” he said.
He debunked the report that the task force had shared N5 billion to the most vulnerable people in the country.
He said the essence of the PTF daily briefing is to counter false news and to give the media and the public latest developments on the fight against COVID-19.
The minister added that the PTF briefing is a platform that gives “only authentic and real-time information,” and commended the media for “devoting their time and resources to educating Nigerians on the government’s fight against COVID-19″.