The Federal Government has sanctioned travellers, government officials and other passport holders; for failing to undergo compulsory COVID-19 tests after returning into the country.
Dr Sani Aliyu – the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 – spoke extensively in a video released on Twitter; by the Ministry of Information and Culture on Wednesday. He warned that the Government will continue to publish passport numbers of defaulting travellers into the country.
Dr Aliyu also insisted that the move was to protect the Nation from health risks, from travellers who have failed to observe test protocols.
“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“We do not publish names because the essence of doing the entire exercise is to force people to comply with our protocols,” he explained.
The government had last week, slammed a travel ban of six months; from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021 on hundred defaulting travellers and passport holders.
Their passport numbers were also published for failing to undergo Covid-19 tests after returning into the country.
