COVID-19: I Denied Five Governors Flight Permission — Minister

Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika says that five governors have been denied flight approval by him since the closure of the airports and the lockdown order by President Muhammadu Buhari owing to the measure to check the spread of coronavirus.

Senator Hadi Sirika said three out of the four governors who were denied flight approval were members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Minister disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the daily media briefing by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

Hadi Sirika, however, reported that 98 per cent of the flight approved and those to be approved will be COVID-19 related issues.

He said two of the governors are South-south one was from North-central and the other two are from the South-east.

When asked whether some privileged citizens were flouting the no flight order by the aviation ministry, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika said: “Every single flight that we approved and will be approved will be an essential flight and 98per cent of the essential flight will be connected to coronavirus.

According to him, “A few of them, maybe 1percent may be either repatriation, request from the diplomatic community which must go through foreign affairs, or repatriation due to illness of another kind which will be medical-kind and those evacuations will also need a stamp of a teaching hospital.