THERE is no guarantee for France returnees en route Cotonou to
Nigeria, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama has said.
Onyeama said their chances of coming into the country is subject
to availability of accommodation and personnel for their isolation
and quarantine in line with current travel protocol to contain the
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister, who spoke during the daily briefing of the
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control, assured that the
ministry would liaise with the country’s Charge ‘de Affairs and the
two states bordering Benin Republic.
The minister was responding to an inquiry by Nigerians in France
on the possibility of boarding a flight to Cotonou and then come
into the country through the land border.
He said: “When the question was asked, I have the benefit of
sitting next to the Minister of Interior, who also is responsible
for the land border of our country. But essentially, the thing is
this: we have a protocol in place; we can only take people
according to number of facilities for one that we have available
where they will be quarantined for two weeks when we have adequate
staffing to monitor them for a period of two weeks.
“So, that is really the pre-condition for an approval for
anybody to come in from outside. As you know, I have reported here
in the past that we have taken in almost a hundred of Nigerians
that have come in through the land boarders from Togo, Côte
d’Ivoire and Ghana. So, the possibility is there but first and
foremost, we have to be sure that we have the requisite capacity to
take in those pas angers.”
THERE is no guarantee for France returnees en route Cotonou to
Nigeria, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama has said.
Onyeama said their chances of coming into the country is subject
to availability of accommodation and personnel for their isolation
and quarantine in line with current travel protocol to contain the
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister, who spoke during the daily briefing of the
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control, assured that the
ministry would liaise with the country’s Charge ‘de Affairs and the
two states bordering Benin Republic.
The minister was responding to an inquiry by Nigerians in France
on the possibility of boarding a flight to Cotonou and then come
into the country through the land border.
He said: “When the question was asked, I have the benefit of
sitting next to the Minister of Interior, who also is responsible
for the land border of our country. But essentially, the thing is
this: we have a protocol in place; we can only take people
according to number of facilities for one that we have available
where they will be quarantined for two weeks when we have adequate
staffing to monitor them for a period of two weeks.
“So, that is really the pre-condition for an approval for
anybody to come in from outside. As you know, I have reported here
in the past that we have taken in almost a hundred of Nigerians
that have come in through the land boarders from Togo, Côte
d’Ivoire and Ghana. So, the possibility is there but first and
foremost, we have to be sure that we have the requisite capacity to
take in those pas angers.”