COVID-19: Federal lawmakers rejecting airport screening - Buhari’s chief of staff cries out
- The chief of staff to the president, Abba Kyari, has raised an alarm over the attitude of lawmakers to undergo screening at airports
- Kyari informed the speaker that some federal lawmakers refused to be screened at the airport while returning from a foreign trip
- The chief of staff asked the speaker of the House of Reps to request that the affected lawmakers should present themselves for testing
Abba Kyari, the chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, has raised an urgent alarm to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, about the arrogance of some Nigerian lawmakers towards health officials at the airport.
According to Premium Times, Kyari, in a letter addressed to the speaker of the lower legislative chamber on Saturday, March 21, said the minister of health had drawn his attention to lawmakers' repeated violation of screening procedures at the airports.
He wrote: “As you are aware, these airport screenings are our primary line of defence and refusal by any citizen to subject to these tests is a threat to our nation.”
Though the letter surfaced online in the morning on Monday, March 23, the origin of who posted first remains unclear. It also did not specifically mention the names of lawmakers that declined screening after their arrival from a foreign trip.
Source: Twitter
The chief of staff in the letter went on to urge Gbajabiamila to rein in the excesses of federal lawmakers and immediately ask those who refused to submit to a coronavirus test to report themselves at the screening centres.
Lanre Lasisi, the spokesperson for Gbajabiamila, however, declined to make any comment about the letter.
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Legit.ng previously reported that Nigeria has recorded the first coronavirus death after a 67-year-old man who returned home following medical treatment in UK succumbed to the disease.
This was disclosed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet on Monday, March 23. The deceased man reportedly has underlying medical conditions.
Specifically, he was suffering from multiple myeloma & diabetes. He was also undergoing chemotherapy, consequently, the NCDC commiserated with his family.
In a related development, five new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Nigeria. The new cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) include two in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), two in Lagos state and one in Edo state.
Two of the cases are returning travellers from the United Kingdon So far, there have been 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria and two have been discharged This new development brings cases in Lagos to 24, FCT – 6, Ogun- 2, Ekiti- 1, Oyo- 1, Edo- 1.
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Coronavirus: Nigerian man says only rich men can contract the deadly virus: Legit TV
Source: Legit.ng
