By Uthman Samad
THE Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has debunked the news making round that an official of the service has been tested positive of Coronavirus in Abuja.
Media reports since the early hours of Saturday have disclosed that an official of FIRS has been confirmed positive together with two other Nigerians. The news claimed that the official was one of the passengers on the British Airways’ flight that landed on March 13, 2020.
In a statement obtained earlier this afternoon by TheICIR, signed by the Communications and Liaison Department director, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, the board explained that a member of the staff of the service has only been observing self-isolation alongside his spouse for the past 5 days after he went to pick his wife from the airport.
“The Service can confirm that a member of staff who went to pick his wife from the airport following her return from a trip abroad is currently and voluntarily observing the Federal Government advisory of self-isolation alongside his spouse at the couple’s home since Monday.
Both husband and wife have not visited any FIRS offices or events since the wife returned to Nigeria last Sunday.”
A part of the statement reads that the agency has taken and directed all FIRS offices across the nation to take necessary precautions to protect both staff and taxpayers from Covid-19 through safety measures such as social distancing, temperature testing, disabling of the biometric sign in, and provision of hand sanitizers for staff and visitors at offices nationwide.
Samad Uthman is a multimedia journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He tweets @sarmerdk2 and can be shot through [email protected]