The Federal Government has said it was watching neighbouring countries, such as the Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana, before taking a decision on travel ban to and fro the United Kingdom, where a new strain of coronavirus is wreaking havoc.

According to the Federal Government, there need to be a synergy with neighbouring countries for such a ban on UK flights to effective.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed these when he featured on a Radio Nigeria programme, “Politics Nationwide” on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mohammed said: “Although the government is concerned over the importation of the COVID-19 new strain, it did not want to take a hasty decision.”

He said the Presidential Committee on COVID-19 deliberated on the issue at its meeting on Monday and decided to watch the development for the time being.

According to the minister, they were working with West African Health Organisations and other neighbouring countries, particularly, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

He said: “We did not want to take a hasty decision to ban flight from the UK into Nigeria only to find out our people are going through Cotonou, Lome or Accra to come into the country.

“What the airlines will do is to transfer Nigerian passengers to these routes and they will enter the country through the land borders.

“This will lead to hardship to Nigerians because if you transfer your economy to other countries you lose a lot of money.

“However, if we get the concurrence of these other countries, we will not hesitate to do the needful.

“We are consulting and being very careful in order to take a proper decision,” he said.

Vanguard