The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, has directed that health personnel who provide fake COVID-19 certifications be arrested and prosecuted.
His comments came after the Director-General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, announced that some of those participating in the illegal activity had been apprehended and given over to the Department of State Security (DSS).
Dr Adetifa added that some corrupt individuals allegedly collaborated with airport officials to perpetrate the crime.
This prompted the speaker to propose legislation to establish a government agency similar to the TSA to monitor airport operators in Nigeria.
“It’s not going to be one of those sessions where there will be no outcomes, I think one of the outcomes will be a law that specifically sets up an agency of government to oversee the operations of the airports like the TSA.
“I think the TSA appears to be the silver bullet that cures most of the things we heard here and the chairmen of the relevant committees in the House, led by the Aviation Committee, hopefully, will begin to put this together. Hopefully, within the next two week, we will have a draft of the bill,” he said.
In response to a comment from Nnolim Nnaji, Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, about suspected unethical behaviour by FAAN personnel at airports, FAAN Managing Director Rabiu Yadudu replied that management and staff met weekly to inform and monitor their operations.
