briefs reporters in Abuja on August 17, 2020.
Nigeria is expecting the return of some of its citizens
who have been convicted and pardoned in various countries around
the world.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss
Mustapha, disclosed this on Monday at a press briefing in
Abuja.
He listed some of the countries that were planning to repatriate
such Nigerians to include the United Arab Emirates and the United
States.
Mustapha said, “A number of countries have signified intention
to repatriate Nigerians convicted and pardoned and paroled in those
countries.
“They include the UAE, Egypt and the United States of America.
Coming in the midst of our National Response to COVID-19, all
relevant agencies of government are taking multi-sectoral steps to
ensure that the process remains within acceptable international
protocols and in line with bilateral agreements.”
He stressed that the repatriation of the convicted Nigerians was
quite different from the government’s regular evacuation
flights.
The PTF chairman announced that the evacuation flights would end
on August 25, to allow airports sufficient time to prepare for the
resumption of international flights.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
He noted the decline in COVID-19 fatalities, high discharge
rates, and consistent under-500 daily cases for the past four
weeks.
Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), stressed that this was in spite of the huge jump
in the nation’s testing capacity and increased daily tests
conducted.
He, however, informed Nigerians that the country has yet to
attain the desired level that would enable authorities to make
conclusive statements on the rate of infection in Nigeria.
The PTF chairman asked Nigerians to keep doing that which was
giving the country record improvements and desist from actions
capable of undermining the successes.
According to him, the country is fully in the community spread
phase and one of the major measures that should be taken is to keep
testing to detect and treat.