Passengers and other users of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos were yesterday thrown into panic as a suspected Ebola patient was flown into the country by Royal Air Maroc in the early hours of the day. The Moroccan airline arrived Lagos from Casablanca at 6am.
The victim, one Theophilus Onnakhinon, a Nigerian, was said to have been flown into the country by the airline, while his younger brother, Chinedu Eroka, absconded from Sierra Leonean authorities. For now, it is not clear why Eroka absconded from the Sierra Leonean authorities. The passenger was said to have under gone treated for the Ebola virus and declared cured.
He was assisted into the country by a Nigerian consular official, Mrs. T. Mohammed. According to a source, the consular officer accompanied Onnakhinon into the country in order to avoid stigmatisation by Nigerian health officials and others at the airport.
On arrival, he was immediately handed over to the Port Health officials, who immediately isolated and quarantined him. The Port Health officials says the reason for the quarantine was for the officials to determine his health status and confirm that he was indeed free of the disease before being allowed to integrate into the society.
Wednesday’s incident came a week after the World Health Organisation declared Nigeria Ebola free.
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