Third Wave of COVID-19: Check International Travellers, Sanwo-Olu Advises Immigration

As the country is hit by a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has charged the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to rise to the occasion to prevent the potential spread of the virus.

The governor, who gave the charge when he received the

Comptroller of the Lagos State Command of the NIS, Bauchi Aliyu, at the State House in Alausa, said against the background of fresh transmission recorded in the past few days in Lagos and confirmation of the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus in the country, it has become imperative for the service to be extra vigilant in its operation.

Sanwo-Olu said the NIS has a statutory responsibility to prevent further spread of the virus by keeping their eyes on travellers coming into the country through land, sea and air borders.

This, he said, would help the Incident Command team to curtail the rate of transmission and manage cases already confirmed.

The governor’s meeting with the state NIS boss came after he (Sanwo-Olu) raised the alarm over the disappearance of some air passengers, who came into the country via the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, but could not be reached for COVID-19 status monitoring by EKOTELEMED because they supplied wrong contact details.

As the gatekeeper, SanwoOlu charged NIS to work with frontline responders stationed at ports of entry across border posts to ensure in-bound travellers adhere to laid down COVID-19 protocols.

According to him, “We are monitoring events that may lead to the third wave of COVID-19 in the country and this is why we need to work together with the NIS. As the gatekeeper, you have statutory responsibility to work with our frontline health workers to ensure that the people coming into the country obey our rules and conform to the protocols.”

The governor urged the Service to ensure passengers coming into the country are duly monitored and accounted for.

Sanwo-Olu accepted the comptroller’s proposal for the mop-up of irregular migrants in Lagos, noting that such operations would help improve security in the state and aid the government to identify non-Nigerians working illegally in Lagos.