The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says it has no plan to ban Liberian airlines from coming into Nigeria, following a fresh outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in Liberia.
NCAA’s General
Manager (Public Affairs), Mr. Fan Ndubuoke, said this on Friday while speaking
with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
NAN reports that
a fresh case of Ebola was detected in Liberia, nearly two months after the West
African country was declared free of the virus by the World Health
Organisation.
The Liberian
authorities are monitoring at least 100 people thought to have been in contact
with a 17-year-old boy, Abraham Memaigar, who died on June 28 in Margibi
County, Liberia.
When Ashiwaju.org visited the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on
Friday saw both inbound and outbound passengers being screened for the virus by
Port Health Officials.
Ndubuoke said
Ebola Prevention and Control was a collaborative effort by the NCAA, the
Nigerian Immigration Service, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the
Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Port Health Services.
According to him,
rather than banning the airlines, the various agencies have intensified
necessary preventive measures at all the international airports in the country.
He said, “I am
not aware of any move to ban any Liberian airline from coming into the country.
“Last year, we
were the ones that banned AskAir when we knew that the airline brought in Mr.
Patrick Sawyer. We stopped the airline from operating in our country.”
Ndubuoke said
adequate facilities were in place at the Port Health Office where inbound and
outbound passengers were adequately screened.
He assured the
public and intending passengers that all government agencies were on their
guard not to allow any passenger who refused to be screened into the country.
