‘No FIRS Staff Tested Positive for COVID-19’

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has stated that no member of its staff tested positive to COVID-19 as being peddled on social media.

A statement by its Director, Communications and Liaison Department, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, stated “unequivocally that no member of staff at the FIRS has tested positive to COVID-19 as being peddled on social media.”

“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 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 retuned 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,” the Service said.

According to the statement, before now, all FIRS offices had taken necessary precautions to protect both staff and 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 its offices nationwide as advised by the Federal Ministry of Health.

It therefore, advised members of the public to discountenance the claim that an FIRS official had tested positive to Covid-19.