FG cancels visas for US, UK, China, bars Nigerians there from returning home
The Federal Government has cancelled the Nigerian visas already issued to citizens and residents of the 13 countries from which flights and entry through land and sea borders had been banned earlier today
The countries are China, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Also, no new visas will be issued to such citizens or residents, while Nigerians living in those countries are equally barred from coming home in the next four weeks.
Minister of the Interior, RAUF Aregbesola, made the announcements while briefing State House correspondents on decisions taken by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) towards containing the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Visa on arrival policy, which Nigeria had recently reserved for some countries, has also been suspended, he stated.
These travel restrictions ban will however, take effect from Saturday, and last for an initial period of four weeks, Aregbesola maintained.
Government had a day earlier barred its officials from travelling abroad, especially to these countries, until further notice.
On why implementation of flight ban will wait till Saturday despite the danger posed by the various, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, explained that it was “because normally there is what is called NOTAM – Notice To All Airmen. If you want to issue a kind of restrictions like this you give notice more than 24 hours to all airmen so that they will know when to position their flights and for safety and security reasons.
“For instance, if an aircraft has taken off now, you cannot ask it to go back mid-air.”
