There was anxiety at the arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos arrival hall yesterday as Port Health and aviation security officials engaged in an argument on whether an alleged inbound passenger suspected to have been affected by the deadly Ebola Virus should be allowed into the country.
The passenger suspected to have been infected by the deadly Ebola Virus was said to have been discovered on arrival by officials of the Port Health Service attached to the terminal.
The suspected passenger according to a source close to the Port Health arrived the country aboard one of the Nigerian domestic airlines from the West African coast.
The source claimed that a hot argument ensued between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) personnel at the airport and the health officials over an attempt to allow the infected passenger come into the country while another party insisted that he should be returned to his point of departure.
The source however revealed that since the outbreak of the disease in Nigeria about two weeks ago, the port health officials at the airport had deployed equipment meant for screening of every passengers arriving into the country especially from the West African countries.
According to the source; “I don’t specifically know where the plane came from, but the patient was discovered during screening of inbound passengers by the port health officials at the airport. As at now, we don’t know what to do with him. Some of the officials want him return to base while others are insisting that as a Nigerian, he has the right to arrive into the country.
“The aircraft was probably coming from Accra, Ghana onboard the airline. I just want our officials to be careful with the way they interact with some of the passengers.”
When contacted the General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati said there was nothing like that.
Since the deadly disease was imported into the country through a Liberian, Patrick Sawyerr who flew into the country aboard a Togolese airline, Asky, Nigerians have been living with fear.
Following the scourge, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) suspended the flight operations of Asky Airlines for about a week, before the suspension was lifted last Friday.
Arik Air had earlier suspended its flight operations to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two countries where the disease had claimed almost a thousand people since it broke out in April this year.
Since the presence of the deadly disease, security officials at the Lagos Airport have been mandated to wear safety garments when processing passengers to avoid being infected.