Nigerian government considers passport ban for passengers breaching Covid-19 test

The chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, said the ban might be necessary to prevent the import of new coronavirus cases into the country via international travellers.

JOHANNESBURG, November 4 (ANA) – The Nigerian government has threatened to prevent international travellers who refuse to avail themselves for a compulsory Covid-19 test, seven days after arriving in the country from using their passports.

According to This Day newspaper, the chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, made the warning during a media briefing on Tuesday, saying non-compliance with Covid-19 protocols by travellers was at 65 percent.

Mustapha cited official statistics showing that only one out of three passengers arriving from abroad was presenting themselves for the mandatory in-country test, which they had signed up to before arrival.

“The PTF is highlighting these issues repeatedly because we remain at risk of importation, having opened our airspace … The next week or two remain critical,” he said.

“The PTF announced the guidelines on the reopening of the airspace and the obligations of arriving passengers. The PTF similarly announced sanctions as a consequence of any infraction.”

The PTF national coordinator on Covid-19, Sani Aliyu, told the briefing that in the next few days the task force would publish a list of the first 100 persons whose passports would be suspended for six months for defaulting on the compulsory test.

International flights in the West African country resumed on August 29 in the capital Abuja and the commercial hub of Lagos, after being grounded for months under a lockdown — similar to those enforced by most countries around the world — aimed at containing the coronavirus.

In its latest update, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said the country had so far recorded 63,173 cases of Covid-19, out of which 59,634 people had recovered while 1,151 had died of complications related to the virus.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa