The Special Assistant to the President on New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, has berated the Senate for saying there are no thermal scanners at the airports.
Ogunlesi said this in a series of tweets barely six hours before Nigeria recorded its first coronavirus case.
He said the lawmakers should have reached out to the Federal Ministry of Health or the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control to find out the efforts being put in place to forestall an outbreak.
Reacting to a report, Ogunlesi said, “What may actually be frightening is when the people with the oversight functions are lamenting like ordinary people, when they could be getting in touch with @mohnigeria @NCDCgov @FAAN_Official, etc to find out what’s actually going on.”
Ogunlesi, who posted a picture of a thermal scanner at one of the airports, said people were being scanned at the airports in a subtle manner.
Senator Ajayi Boroffice, who represents Ondo North senatorial district, had said on the Senate floor on Thursday that Nigeria wasn’t putting enough measures in place at the airports.
The Deputy Leader of the Senate had said he recently returned to the country and noted that he was only given a document to fill at the airport.
Boroffice drew the attention of the Senate to the failure of health personnel at the airports and seaports to screen passengers coming into the country.
The senator said the coronavirus screening at the South African airport usually takes up to 30 minutes before passengers would be allowed to disembark the aircraft.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who agreed with Boroffice, asked the relevant legislative committees to liaise with the health ministries and agencies on the matter.
Barely 12 hours later, however, the ministry of health announced Nigeria’s first case of coronavirus, which happened to be through an Italian who arrived in Lagos from Milan on Tuesday and passed through the airport, only to show symptoms of the virus the next day.
PUNCH
