Lola Ade-John: Minister of Tourism poisoned? Ministry reacts

The federal tourism ministry has dismissed media reports that the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, was poisoned and hospitalised.

The assistant director of press in the ministry, Emem Mariam Ofiong, debunked this report when contacted on the status of the minister.

As reported by Vanguard, she said: “It is not true that the Minister was poisoned, she only had malaria and had been treated and is now stable.”

Ofiong's response is on the heels of an online media report that the 60-year-old minister has been hospitalised and receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre in Jabi, Abuja.

The report stated that the minister was rushed to the hospital after she exhibited poisoning symptoms and was reported to have spent four days in the facility.

The report reads: “Ade-John, a banker and tech investor, has been on a machine to aid her breathing, adding that the specifics as to what substance she ingested and how could not be immediately ascertained.

“Her worsening situation has further set the family against the government, with the permanent secretary of her ministry said to be in disagreement as to whether she should continue receiving treatment at a public hospital or be moved to a better-equipped private facility downtown."

The minister recently assumed office as the first indigenous minister of Tourism after the splitting of the defunct Ministry of Information and Culture by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu into three: Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy, and Ministry of Tourism.

In her welcome address, she pledged to transform the Ministry into a global appellation and to make it a significant economic earning to the Nigerian economy.