COVID-19: Buhari govt reveals plan to impose travel bans on VIPs, govt officials

The President Mohammadu Buhari led Federal Government has said it will clamp down on VIPs and government officials who fail to undergo compulsory COVID-19 tests after returning into the country.

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, stated this on Wednesday in a video uploaded by the Ministry of Information and Culture on Twitter.

The Nigerian government last week published the passport numbers of 100 travellers who failed to undergo COVID-19 tests after returning into the country.

It placed a travel restriction on the passport holders for six months from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.

According to Aliyu, more defaulting passport numbers would be released by the government weekly.

According to him, “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.

“The essence of doing the entire exercise is to force people to comply with our protocols”.