Five Governors denied flight approval in a bid to contain COVID-19 spread - FG

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Tuesday disclosed that five governors have been denied flight approval since the closure of airports and lockdown order by President Muhammad Buhari in a bid to curtail the spread of the deadly virus in the country.

The Minister, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the daily press briefing by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 while being asked by press men if some privileged citizens were flouting the government’s order.

He explained that three of the five governors that were denied flight approval are members of the All Progressive Congress (APC), showing the unbiased system the ministry employs.

Sirika added that two of the governors are from South-east, another two from South-south while the last is from North-central.

He however stated that 98% of the approved flights and those that will be approved in the future will be COVID- 19 related.

He said, “Every single flight that we approved and will be approved will be an essential flight and 98 percent of the essential flight will be connected to COVID-19.

“A few of them, maybe 1 percent may be either repatriation, request from the diplomatic community which must go through foreign affairs, or repatriation due to illness of another kind which will be medical-kind and those evacuations will also need a stamp of a teaching hospital.

He went to further explain, “However, I want to share with you a discussion I had on Twitter with someone when I said we will not be able to open our airport and airspace as a result of the extension of the lockdown for normal operations and someone said, “Kindly stop all the VIPs shuttle going on. It makes no sense to lock citizens up and allow governors to stroll in and out of Abuja. In the first instance, they carried this virus into Nigeria and now running around is not Okay.”

I said to the person that I agree with him but whatever is approved or whoever is approved to fly privately, governor or no governor is on an essential flight and it is addition and 98 percent is related to COVID- 19.