The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 pandemic, Boss Mustapha has denied knowledge of Madagascar demanding 170,000 Euros from the Federal Government for herbal drugs which arrived the country days ago. 

SGF, Mustapha who reacted to claim of the Nigerian government being asked to pay €170,000 for the Madagascar herbal drugs delivered to President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday, May 16, by the visiting President of Guinea Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo, said the herbal drugs were taken to other African countries without an invoice.

According to the SGF, when he took delivery of the sealed herbal drugs, he was not handed an invoice, which would have indicated if there was a cost.

He said;

“In terms of the question of whether it comes with a cost. It was handed to me without an invoice so I assume it doesn’t come with a cost.

“That’s my assumption. For that, I think the Madagascar issue and the Chinese issue should be laid to rest.

“I think we have said repeatedly hear that we did not ask for the Madagascar consignment, it was given by the government of Madagascar to African countries as their contribution to wanting to find solution to the COVID-19 pandemic and we have repeatedly said our consignment and those of West African countries, was dropped off at Guinea Bissau and that we were making arrangements to go and airlift it.

“As God would have it, the President of Guinea Bissau decided to visit our President last Saturday and when he was coming, he came with our consignment of five cartons and those five cartons were delivered to me yesterday in the evening, sealed, without a bottle out of it.

“I’m going to engage the Minister of Health who has the responsibility of validation, through his institutions that are chartered by law to do that.

“The President was upfront with that even when he took delivery of the herbal drugs from the President of Guinea Bissau.

“He said it quite clear of what we are going to do with the consignment would be guided by science, under the processes of validation, we’ll now know where to go.”

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The SGF who further disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in all systems of the world, even of the so-called superpowers, stated that it would be a huge mistake for Nigerians to desire to go back to their old ways.

SGF, Mustapha added;

“If we do not learn anything from COVID-19 and build institutions that will be enduring and sustainable, we would have failed the next generation.

“Life after COVID-19 will not be our normal type of life again. COVID-19 has come and it has disrupted everything you know as normal and the benefit of that distraction is that we will begin to put on our thinking cap and begin to address issues differently because it has exposed the weaknesses in all systems.

“It’s not only the Nigeria system that has been exposed, even the big countries with very big economies, COVID-19 has exposed every gap in their systems; their system of health, their social safety nets, their governance issues have all been disrupted and I can assure you that after COVID-19, at the individual level, at the community level, at the state level, at the national level, we will begin to do things differently. It cannot be business as usual again.”

Igbo Groups have lamented the increasing relocation of the Almajiri to the Southeast despite the interstate travel ban by the Federal Government and they have vowed to resist this relocation.

The highest Igbo groups, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Igbo National Council (INC) and the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) on Tuesday called for a halt to the influx of Northern youths into the southeast states.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) also kicked against the development.

They accused security agencies of complicity in the relocation of the Almajirai, which they said makes a mockery of the interstate travel ban.

Ohanaeze President in Anambra State, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, said it was left for the people to protect themselves since the Federal Government has “failed to effectively enforce its order.”

Okeke-Ogene said: “The Federal Government is not ready to protect us. We must take our security in our hands. No other person can do that.

“We’re ready and we warn those without a mission in the state to find alternative abodes. This state can’t contain us and them.”

The Igbo National Council, INC, described the relocation of the Amajirai to the South-east as an assault on the Ndigbo, The Nation reports.

INC President, Chilos Confident urged Igbo leaders to reinvigorate their vigilante outfits and initiate an identification exercise in their communities.

“We also enjoin the vigilante groups to commence regular combing and security of all the forests of our communities.

“INC will do everything possible to protect the citizens and territories of the Igbo nation-states,” he said.

ASATU National President Chief Alex Onukwue wondered why the Almajiri were moving to the South-east rather than returning to their states of origin.

He told reporters: “On behalf of all the communities of Anambra State, we express our disgust and total disappointment with ongoing wicked efforts by some desperate citizens, who are engaged in the wicked act of shipping strange persons from Northern Nigeria to the South, Anambra State and the South-east inclusive.

“We wish to warn that should this callous business of shipping strange persons continue, Almajirai or not, from the North or elsewhere to Anambra State in light of COVID-19 restrictions, the communities of Anambra State will be left with no choice than to confront the situation with all the seriousness it deserves.

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“We can no longer take it as child’s play.

“Whosoever that is or are behind this wickedness must refrain from doing so immediately as the communities of Anambra State can no longer fold our hands and watch on as our lives are being threatened by the mischievous inclinations of some unpatriotic citizens who can go as far as hiding human beings between animals and bags of cement or whatever and smuggle them from the Northern parts of the country down to Anambra State and the Southeast.”

Ohanaeze youths, in a statement by its National Deputy President, Dr Kingsly Dozie, urged the South-east states to ensure the Almajiri return to where they came from.

“We will no longer tolerate the sabotage by security operatives who should man our borders and stop the influx of the Almajiris, including suspected Boko Haram extremists.

“We are engaging our youth vigilante groups to take charge of the borders. Enough is enough.

“We are warning all the security operatives to adhere strictly to the ban on interstate movement. We are now positioned to check the borders ourselves.

“We will not condone the sabotage from greedy and selfish security operatives and businessmen. The lives and property of our people are very important to us,” Dozie said in a statement.

The PFN said the free movement of the Almajirai, despite the lockdown, was a threat to efforts to curtail the spread of Coronavirus.

National Vice President (Southeast), Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu said it was strange and inexcusable that “these men and women are flooding into the Southeast despite the nationwide lockdown and ban on interstate travel”.

“To this end, we are calling on the Southeast governors to work the talk by putting up stern measures to ensure the protection of the region’s boundaries.

“The current situation should not be left unchecked as it poses grave danger to this zone,” he said.

The Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) expressed concern over the treatment of the Almajirai.

The association, in a statement by its President and Secretary Prof Edward Alikor and Dr Petronila Tabansi, said the Almajirai were at risk of COVID-19 infection and transmission.

It said reports that some of the Almajiri were rejected by their states of origin and forced to return to where they came from was condemnable.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN says it has commenced fumigation of International Airports in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt ahead of reopening of flight operations in Nigeria.

General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, made this known on Tuesday in a statement in Lagos.

Yakubu explained that the fumigation exercise was in line with the efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world.

She said though, it was not yet clear when the ban on flights would be lifted, the authority was taking the proactive steps.

“This is to ensure the safety of passengers and other airport users when the airports eventually reopen.

“In March this year, the authority embarked on a similar exercise of disinfection and fumigation of all the international airports,” she said.

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The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, had in April announced the extension of the ban on flight operations by four weeks.