Nigerians in Chinese town hit by Coronavirus are not willing to return home

Sixteen Nigerians living in Wuhan, a Chinese town hit by Coronavirus are not willing to return home

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said the Federal Government has got in touch with the affected persons in Wuhan, China.

The minister while addressing journalists on Friday, January 31, 2020, said the 16 Nigerians have not shown interest in returning to their country.

While urging Nigerians to reconsider travelling to China, the minister said the Federal Government cannot stop Nigerians from travelling to the country.

He said, “We know it is a bit difficult to ban people from travelling. Another thing is that this is not a basis to stigmatise people who come from there.

“Even if we have Nigerians who are there, unless they indicate interest that they want to come home, we can’t force them.

“I know we have Nigerians in Wuhan; our Embassy in China has confirmed that we have about 16 Nigerians in Wuhan and they are in touch with them.

“They have, however, not indicated their interest to come home. They will, however, contact our embassy if they like to come home.

“We need a lot of public enlightenment. We need to let people who travel know that there is the need for absolute transparency and absolute honesty when they are filling out forms.”

The disease, which has now been declared global emergency by World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly killed 213 people in China.

Coronavirus recently broke out in China and has spread to 16 countries, namely Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, US, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.