Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), on Saturday, denied the news making round that a senior staff of the agency tested positive to Coronavirus at the weekend.
A section of the media had been awash with the news that a staff of FIRS who came back on a British Airways flight on March 13, 2020 tested positive to Coronavirus, but in a swift reaction, the agency denied the report describing it as fake news.
Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, Director, Communications and Liaison Department of the FIRS, in a statement on Saturday, stated categorically that no member of the staff of agency tested positive to COVID-19.
The statement reads “The attention of the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad Nami and the Management of the Service has been drawn to the fake news making the rounds on Social Media that a member of staff at the FIRS has tested positive to COVID-19.
The Service hereby states unequivocally that no member of staff at the FIRS has tested positive to COVID-19 as being peddled on Social Media.
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.
More importantly, both husband and wife have only been in self-isolation for five days and have NOT tested positive to Covid-19.
Before now, all FIRS offices have taken necessary precautions to protect both Staff and our esteemed taxpayers from Covid-19 through such safety measures as social distancing, temperature testing, disabling of the biometric sign in, and provision of hand sanitizers for staff and visitors to our offices nationwide as advised by the Federal Ministry of Health.
Members of the public are therefore advised to discountenance the claim that an FIRS official has tested positive to Covid-19.
SIGNED
Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad
Director,
Communications and Liaison Department
Federal Inland Revenue Service