More than 60 Nigerian in Wuhan, a Chinese town hit by Coronavirus, have indicated interest to come back home, contrary to claims by Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed.
Wuhan, a metropolis in China, is the location of the Coronavirus outbreak in January, a disease that has since killed over 200 people and has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The minister of information while addressing journalists on Friday, January 31, 2020, claimed 16 Nigerians had not shown interest in returning to their country.
The Chinese Embassy in Nigeria says there are 60 Nigerians living in Wuhan, the Chinese city where Coronavirus broke out.
Zhou Pingjian, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, said this while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday.
“According to our check with your embassy (in China), there are 60, not 16 Nigerians, that are in Wuhan now. Your embassy has maintained regular communication with them. At this moment, no one risks much movements,” he said.
The Chinese government is taking relevant steps to contain the virus and keep residents safe, the ambassador said, noting, “There might be 40,000 or 50,000 Chinese nationals in Nigeria,” and most of them are in Lagos.
Nigeria’s information minister, Lia Mohammed on Friday said the Federal Government was in touch with the about 16 Nigerians residing in the Chinese city, saying they had not indicated any interest in being evacuated to Nigeria.
“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,” he had said.
A Twitter user, who said he’s in Wuhan, described this as untrue, alleging that the embassy does not even have a directory of Nigerians in the Asian country.
He said he had been in China since 2016, both for studies and business, but did not disclose his identity. The use of Twitter is illegal in China and defaulters risk being detained.
“So far, the US government and a few other countries have made moves to move their citizens out from Wuhan. This is what makes a country great, not just by words or using media to lie about your citizens, such things as lie and media deceit should not be accepted,” he wrote.
“Let me shock you; the Nigerian embassy in China doesn’t have the database of Nigerians in China. They only started to collect the data ‘improperly’ a few days ago because everyone is now getting pissed at them and they swung to cover their tracks.
“Amid all this, from having no database, our government hasn’t spoken to us and no one cares. We have remained strong, we have believed in Nigeria, we have hoped they’d act to our safety and at least reach out to us. But nothing happened except lying against us through media.”
