By Babajide Okeowo( The New Diplomat’s Content Editor)
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has extended the ban imposed on local and international flights by four weeks.
Chairman of the Task Force, who is also Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, made this known at the daily briefing of the task force in Abuja.
In his words, the decision to extend the ban was in light of expert’s advice.
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“Tomorrow marks the last day for the enforcement of the closure of Nigeria’s airspace to flights. We have assessed the situation in the aviation industry and have come to the conclusion that given the facts available to us and based on the advice of experts, the ban on all flights will be extended for an additional four weeks,” he said.
On his part, Minister of Aviation, Sirika Hadi while confirming the development reminded all that the sector being a safety-related one will need even more time than others to get back to its feet after the lockdown was eased.
Hadi further added that as the most hard-hit sector economic wise by the pandemic, the aviation sector will need more time to pick up the pieces and put the necessary safety guidelines in place before operations can gradually resume.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 18, 2020, approved the ban on flights to check the spread of coronavirus.
