Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
For going against the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic guidelines of flying in 27 passengers with no negative PRC test result, affected airlines are to pay $94,500 fine.
The PTF had in August declared that, airlines that fail to comply with international flight protocols, will be slammed $3,500 fine per passenger.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, at the PTF briefing Thursday, said, while some of the 27 passengers arrived the country with rapid result test which is not accepted, some came with expired PCR result test and others came with no result at all.
He said: “We had sadly some 27 cases in Abuja of passengers that did not comply with our guidelines on PCR negative result test. Some of them came with rapid result test which is not accepted, some came with expired PCR result test and others came with no PCR test at all.
“The protocol and procedure is that the airlines that have brought in this passengers will of course answer and will be dealt according to the law and for those violations, the NCAA will deal with them accordingly.
“All inbound flights are only allowed to have maximum of 200 passengers while they can carry as much as they want outbound.
“If there is any review this will be advised by the task force.”
Sirika also said Emirates Airline are now allowed to fly into Nigeria beginning Friday.
Meanwhile, the PTF said 60,000 environmental health workers have already been mobilized to ensure safe reopening of schools across the country.
The Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, made the disclosure yesterday.
