The Federal Government of Nigeria has no plan to evacuate Nigerians in countries with high cases of COVID-19, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama has said.
Onyeama was speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at the second joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
He said that while some countries evacuated their nationals from Nigeria, it was not the case for Nigerians abroad due to diplomatic procedures.
According to him, evacuations have to be done within the framework of the embassies.
“As at now (Tuesday), that there has not been any requests from any of our embassies indicating any significant numbers of Nigerians to leave and if we receive such notification we would act accordingly,” Onyeama said.
FG to issue restriction protocol
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, said that the Federal Government would issue the restriction protocol and exemption guidelines of the lock-down in FCT, Lagos and Ogun states over the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“We have just begun the first day of restrictions in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja. We are observing developments around the country as we receive reports.
“The PTF has, however, met with the Security Chiefs to smoothen the rough edges of implementation and within the first day of implementation and an appropriate restriction protocol and exemption guidelines will be issued.
“Initial feedback is that there are violations of restrictions by the citizens that we desire to protect. The decision to lockdown is to prevent community spread which may be dangerous to manage. It can only be done by Nigerians and for Nigerians.
“The coronavirus has not only attack our health as people; it has also attack our wealth as a nation,” Mustapha said.
School feeding on course
On her part, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, said that the ministry was unrelenting in its school children feeding.
She said the ministry would liaise with the state governments to work out the modalities to know how to go about the programme, despite the stay-at-home directive.
According to her, as at Tuesday, the ministry has 11,045,537 individuals, 35 states, 453 local governments, 4,946 wards, 47,698 communities and 2,644,495 households on the National Social Register of Poor and Vulnerable households (PVHHs).
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