TheCable

Sixty-seven travellers who arrived Nigeria from Ivory Coast have been put in isolation at a facility in Badagry, Lagos state.

TheCable had reported that there was panic in Osun over fears that the travellers would head to the state. 

In March, the state had received 127 returnees from Ivory Coast among whom 17 tested positive for COVID-19.

A top government official who spoke off the record had told TheCable that the state could not afford to host more returnees, given that not all those who claimed they were from Osun in the last batch are truly from the state.

NAN said the 67 Nigerians resident in Ivory Coast arrived at Seme border in Lagos on Wednesday, disclosing that most of the passengers in a luxurious bus with registration number Osun XA 240 EJG which conveyed them were women, children and few men.

Officials from the Lagos state ministry of health arrived at the Seme border post around 4pm and took the returnees to isolation centres in Badagry for tests and quarantine.

The Nigerians, who left Ivory Coast on Sunday, were delayed on their way because of the border closures in Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Am official of Nigeria Immigration Service in Seme who did not want his name mentioned, said they had earlier informed the Lagos state government of their arrival.

He said that most of the returnees were from Ejigbo in Osun, resident in Ivory Coast but decided to come back to Nigeria when the COVID-19 broke out in the country.