The Comptroller General of the NIS, Muhammad Babandede, said the service officials received the 67 returnees and after thorough profiling, handed them over to the Lagos State Government.

In a statement by the NIS Public Relations Officer, Mr Sunday James, the comptroller general said 58 of the returnees were from Osun State

He said the NIS “handed them over to the Lagos State Government, represented by the Special Assistant Health to the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Dr Tunde Ajayi, after thorough profiling with the following details: Osun State, 58; Lagos State, four; Oyo State, two; Ondo State, one; Edo, one; Ogun-one, total 67 returnees.”

The Lagos State Government had accommodated the 67 returnees in some hotels in Badagry, where they would be quarantined for two weeks.

A source, who confided in one of our correspondents, said they would be joined by 24 people who would arrive on Thursday.

Last month, 127 Nigerians, mostly from Osun State, arrived in the country through the Idiroko border in Ogun State.

The state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, handed the returnees over to his Osun State counterpart, Gboyega Oyetola, who isolated them in Ejigbo. Eighteen of the returnees have tested positive for COVID-19.

On Tuesday reported that 67 persons were stopped by security agents at the Seme border.

According to the report, the security agents notified the Lagos State Government, which insisted that returnees must be in quarantine for 14 days.

It was also reported that the Lagos State Government had made arrangements to accommodate the returnees in some Badagry hotels, which had no other guests.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, at a press conference organised by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday, said the Federal Government contacted the governments of Togo and Benin, which allowed the 67 Nigerians to pass through their territories.

The minister said,

“They are now at the Nigerian border and we got the authorisation for them to come into the country. They will be in isolation for the mandatory 14 days when they have come in.

“We have another 24 Nigerians in a hotel in Togo. They are going to be tested. We have also got the government of Benin’s approval for them to move through Béninoise territory to come into Nigeria, possibly by tomorrow.

“We’ve also arranged where they will all be confined when they come into the country. That has been going very smoothly and, for this, we are extremely grateful to the governments of Togo and the Republic of Benin, which have cooperated with us and made this possible.”

Onyeama added that there was a doctor who was part of the team “caught outside the country,” adding that the doctor had made his way to the Republic of Benin.