The Airline Operators of Nigeria has demanded that the Federal Government restrict entry into Nigeria, limiting it to Lagos and Abuja. The group stated that Nigeria is the only country that hasn’t taken decisive measures to battle coronavirus.
The group said the restriction should include Nigerians and foreigners coming from countries with about 100 cases of coronavirus. Speaking on behalf of Airline Operators of Nigeria, the Chairman, Capt. Nogie Meggison, said Nigeria had been holding back in taking restricted measures like other countries.
Nairametrics reported that the leaders of the United States, Canada, France, China, Uganda, Ghana, Chad and other countries had announced travel ban and placed restrictions on entry into their countries, limiting it to just few countries.
Just as the aforementioned countries did, Meggison said the Federal Government should put Nigerians first.
“We can say for sure that if the situation escalates in Nigeria, other countries of the world would not hesitate to stop us from flying into their countries.
“We would like to appeal to the government to stand tall by putting Nigeria first at this time and take immediate action by restricting travel into Nigeria.”
He said this would enable effective deployment of critical medical support staff and utilisation of thermal scanners by the Port Health Services.
FG still ignoring travel ban calls: Despite demand that the Nigerian government should closed the border and place travel ban on flights from countries with high cases of coronavirus, FG said the time isn’t right for such directive.
Despite the spread of coronavirus forcing other world leaders to impose a travel ban on travellers coming in or going out their countries or limiting entry access, the Nigerian government said it has no plan to take such decision, thereby, opening Nigeria’s airspace to flights from countries with reported cases of coronavirus outbreak.
The decision of the Federal Government was revealed by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire while providing updates on the coronavirus in Nigeria. According to him, measures were in place to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria, but a travel ban is not one of the immediate methods being considered.
