Chief of Staff to
the President, Abba Kyari, has asked Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, to direct all members of the House who recently returned from
trips abroad to report to the nearest NCDC office with immediate effect for
screening.
This was confirmed
in a letter dated 21st March 2020, which was signed by Abba Kyari and sent to
Femi Gbajabiamila.
According to Kyari,
the directive was necessary after the Minister of Health was informed that some
members of the House of Representatives, who recently returned from foreign
trips refused to subject themselves to screening at airports.
The letter reads “It
has been brought to the Honourable Minister of Health, recently reported to
this office that some members of the House of Representatives are refusing to
subject themselves to medical screening at airports.
“Accordingly, you
are kindly requested to direct all members of the House of Representatives who
returned to Nigeria from foreign trips to report themselves to the nearest NCDC
test center with immediate effect.”
Reacting to the
letter sent by Abba Kyari, Spokesman of the House, Benjamin Kalu, said since
there are cameras at the airport, official should go through the camera to
identify all those who returned to the country recently and refused to through
the screening so that they can be traced.
Kalu, however, noted
that the letter was a wake-up call.
He said: “There is a
screening process at the airport that is supposed to be obeyed by every
patriotic citizen of this country irrespective of your status. It doesn’t
matter if you are whether you are the President of the country, a Senator or a
member of the House or a governor.
“Health is very
important. If yours is not important to you, that of others is important to
them and any negligent act by being careless might affect a whole lot of
Nigerians.
” The call from the
Presidency through the Chief of Staff is potentially a wake up call. “The House
will not feel that he was trying to pine on them what they are not. If there
are those who did it, they should desist.
“Whether you are a
House of Representative member or not, it doesn’t matter. Everybody is expected
to subject himself. I am sure he sent that same letter to the Senate. It could
be Ministers or Senator. There is nothing wrong about that.
“Yes, I have seen
that letter being circulated online. What I am taking away from that letter is
that people should make efforts to comply with this particular heath policy and
I am not seeing anything wrong with that letter.
“Adding my voice to
what the Chief of Staff said, Members or Senators or whoever you are, comply
with the simple instruction because this virus is real and does not care about
your status. So, let us humble ourselves, wait a few minutes and pass through
the checks.
“There is not
humiliating in going into isolation if need be. You must save your family,
friends and the people you wok with. I think it is the patriotic thing to do
and I commend the Chief of Staff to the President for rising that alarm and
writing that letter.
“People should not
misinterpreted the letter because it is not an attack on the House of Representatives.
“The content of the
letter is what should be taken which is that everyone should be careful no
matter who you are.
“I carry my hand
sanitizer and when I come in, I go through the process. They are very
respectful and professional about what they do.
“I don’t know why
anybody should claim to be a member of this or that and not subject himself or
herself to such screening.
“The truth is that
it is unpatriotic for you not to pass through the screening. It is unpatriotic
to the nation and such persons should be penalised. They should be arrested.
“Those people who
pass through there without screening should be arrested and be properly checked
before being released so that we don’t allow anyone who has this virus into
circulation. We don’t even know who has this virus right no and so, we have to
take extra care.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com