Mamman Daura, a nephew of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was on Wednesday flown abroad for urgent medical treatment, according to a report by SaharaReporters.

The online news platform reported that Daura, known to be one of the powerful men behind the Buhari Presidency, was flown to the United Kingdom.

“Daura, 80, was said to have been flown in a private jet to the UK on Wednesday after exhibiting respiratory difficulties with symptoms similar to coronavirus since last Friday,” the report read.

Daura made the trip at a time the ban imposed on international flights as one of the ways of curtailing further spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria has not been lifted.

The President’s wife, Aisha Buhari, had also defied the ban and reportedly flown to the United Arab Emirates for treatment.

Efforts to get presidential spokesmen to talk on Daura’s trip on Wednesday evening did not yield any result.

A source in the Presidency, who pleaded anonymity, however, said since Daura was not a government official, it would be wrong to expect any reaction from the government.

“Is he (Daura) a government official? Is that how the Presidency has been speaking officially on the movement of private citizens? I think it will be unfair to expect the Presidency to speak on this,” the source said.