Patrick Sawyer Was Under Surveillance in Liberia...possibly knew he had Ebola

                          Patrick Sawyer

It has been revealed that the late Patrick Sawyer who was Nigeria's index case for the Ebola virus was actually under surveillance by the Liberian health authorities, even though he still managed to board a flight heading outside his country.

Nigeria's Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs, Dr.  Nurudeen Mohammed said this while relaying a conversation between Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Nigeria's Ambassador to Liberia, Ambassador Chigozie Oby-Nnadozie.

According to Mohammed, President Sirleaf Johnson in a telephone conversation with Nnadozie had expressed regrets at the circumstances through which the virus had been brought to Nigeria by Sawyer who was under surveillance.

Mr. Patrick Sawyer's sister had died from the Ebola virus Disease.

A review of the CCTV images at the James Spriggs Payne’s Airport, Monrovia, by a Liberian newspaper, The New Dawn, Mr. Sawyer, a naturalized American, looked “terribly ill” and deliberately avoided contacts with people just before boarding the Asky Airline flight that brought him to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Also another Liberian newspaper, FrontPage Africa, reported that Mr. Sawyer, who is believed to have been infected by his sister told its reporter before travelling to Nigeria that he had gone in search of his sister’s husband who ran away after she tested positive for Ebola. The paper said Mr. Sawyer vomited a few times among his friends in Liberian just before heading to the airport and also on the plane. FrontPage Africa’s publisher, Rodney Sieh, later revealed that his paper’s extensive reporting on the matter showed clearly Mr. Sawyer knew he had contacted the Ebola virus before travelling to Nigeria. “He definitely knew he was sick and it was curious that he still decided to travel,” Mr. Sieh said.

Nigeria’s Minister Mohammed at a briefing for members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja Thursday on the ebola virus however noted that there was no time for placing blame, but for collaboration to combat and stop the spread of the deadly virus which has now killed over 900 according to figures from the World Health Organisation.

ECOWAS Vice President,  Dr Toga Mcintosh confirmed that Sawyer escaped from quarantine in Liberia to fly to Nigeria.

Sources: Premium Times, Thisday