The Federal Government has declared additional 132 persons wanted for violating COVID-19 guidelines.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday night.

This is coming on the heels of Sunday declaration of 90 persons wanted for same offence.

Unlike the Sunday list which contained 63 Nigerians and 27 foreigners, the second batch of 132 persons comprising 75 males and 57 females are all Nigerians who arrived the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.

Mustapha recalled that the PSC on COVID-19 on 1st May, 2021 issued a Travel advisory for Passengers arriving in Nigeria from Brazil, India and Turkey.

According to him, these precautionary measures were a necessary step to mitigate the risk of importation of variants of the virus.

“Under the new measures, passengers arriving from/or that have visited any of these three countries within 14 days prior to the visit to Nigeria, are required to follow mandatory arrival quarantine and testing protocols in designated facilities.

“The PSC has however observed that while most of the arriving passengers dutifully observed the guidelines, some (Nigerians and Foreigners) have violated them in contravention of the provisions of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health Regulations Protection, 2021,” Mustapha said.

He added that the 132 violators have been declared Persons of Interest (POI) on account of posing considerable danger to overall public health and for the violation of Nigeria COVID-19 travel protocol by evading the mandatory seven-day quarantine for persons arriving from restricted countries.

He said, “Members of the public are by this notice advised that these persons of interest constitute an immediate health hazard to the society. They must therefore transport themselves safely, to the nearest state public health departments within 48hrs of this notice for immediate evaluation and call the Port Health Services, Federal Ministry of Health on 08036134672 or 08032461990 for further directions.

“The PSC shall in addition, take further steps to sanction these violators. These steps include: Disabling their travel passports for a period not less than one year; Cancelation of visas/

permits of foreigners that have abused Nigeria’s hospitality, and prosecution under the 2021 Health Protection Regulations.” (Adapted from Daily Trust)

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