COVID-19: FG To Impose Travel Ban On VIPs, Govt Officials

The Federal Government has promised to ban Very Important Personalities (VIPs) and government officials who fail to follow the travel protocols.

Naija News recalls that the passport details of 100 travellers who failed to undergo the compulsory COVID-19 test after returning into Nigeria was released to newsmen on Saturday.

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in a post on Twitter on Saturday wrote, “The PTF has placed travel restrictions on the first 100 passengers for non-compliance to the mandatory Day 7 post-arrival COVID-19 test.”

The Presidential Task Force noted that the restrictions started from January 1, 2021, and would last till June 30, 2021

In a video on Twitter posted the Ministry of Information and Culture on Wednesday, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, said more defaulting passport numbers would be released by the government weekly.

He said, “We want to change people’s behaviour. We’ve shown that we are going to do it. We have done it and we will continue to do it every week until things change. It is not like we want to punish people but if you continue to put our country at risk, we will take action.

“Next week, we will publish another 100, subsequent weeks, we will continue to publish until we see an improvement in terms of the compliance. So, whether you are a VIP, whether you are a government official, whether you are in a leadership position, if you do not follow the travel protocols, there will be repercussions.

“We do not publish names because the essence of doing the entire exercise is to force people to comply with our protocols.”