All VIPs must undergo COVID-19 checks, Sanwo-Olu tells airport workers

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has urged airport workers to ensure that all travellers coming into the country, regardless of their status or age undergo the COVID-19 checks. Sanwo-Olu gave the charge when he paid a surprise visit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) on Tuesday to assess how the response team […]

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has urged airport workers to ensure that all travellers coming into the country, regardless of their status or age undergo the COVID-19 checks.

Sanwo-Olu gave the charge when he paid a surprise visit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) on Tuesday to assess how the response team stationed at the Lagos airport are screening inbound passengers for the coronavirus.

Sanwo-Olu reiterated that there must be no VIP passage for anyone at the airport, saying, everyone must subject himself/herself to screening while he cautioned the response team against stigmatising any passenger, who may be showing signs of infection or ailment.

“We need to keep up our gird and remain firm on the screening process at the airport. We need to ensure that we are not keeping our eyes away from anything. Everybody coming in through our air borders must be properly screened. Nobody must be spared from thorough screening,” he stressed.

It would be recalled that Lagos State Government deployed 30 healthcare workers to the airport to strengthen the effort against the virus. Additional 30 personnel were recently added.

The Director of Airport Operations, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Mukhtar Muye, and General Manager of Aero-medical Standards, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Wilfred Haggai, led the governor and his entourage to the airport’s arrival lounge for an on-the-spot assessment of the techniques being used to screen inbound passengers by a combined team of airport officials and health workers.

The governor was also conducted round the testing stations and quarantine facilities built in the airport to manage travellers with infectious diseases.

Expressing satisfaction with the response measures, Sanwo-Olu said his visit to the airport was to have a first-hand experience of the screening process after the federal government triggered advanced vetting of air passengers.