Buhari Cancels Guinea Trip Over Coronavirus

President Muhammadu Buhari has been forced to cancel an official trip to Guinea as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

This was made known to Sahara Reporters on Friday by a top official of the Federal Government.

The source revealed that Buhari alongside presidents of Ghana, Ivory Coast and Niger were supposed to arrive Guinea this weekend ahead of a rescheduled referendum in that country.

But such plans have now been shelved as a result of the rapid rate at which the pandemic was spreading on the continent.

President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, plans to amend the country’s constitution in order to keep his hold on power despite already serving two terms of five years each that elapses at the end of this year.

The situation has led to widespread violence in the West African country with at least 31 civilians and a policeman killed already.

The referendum should have held on March 1 but was moved to March 22, which has eventually been put on hold as a result of of the deadly virus.

Naija News recalls that the Buhari government had earlier restricted 15 high-risk countries from entering Nigeria.

The countries are Sweden, Austria, China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Switzerland.

According to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus (COVID-19), Boss Mustapha, these are all countries with over 1,000 cases.

Effective from today, Saturday, 21st March, 2020, persons arriving from these countries will be subjected to supervised self-isolation and testing for 14 days.

The restrictions are for four weeks and subject to review.

There are currently 12 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease in Nigeria.