It will be recalled that, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had, in a tweet on Wednesday, accused Yari of violating COVID-19 protocol at the Kano airport and also assaulting some staff that wanted to observe him.

FAAN tweet goes thus “He refused to adhere to the protocols and procedures put in place by the Federal Government through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on #COVID19 by forcefully pushing away an officer of the Environment department when he insisted that his luggage must be disinfected,” the FAAN had tweeted.

However, the former governor, in a statement by his media aide, Mayowa Oluwabiyi has said the incident being refereed to in the tweet never happened. Yari said he followed all the COVID-19 preventive protocols set by FAAN and described the FAAN tweet as “odious and distasteful” and demanded that it retracts the “offensive tweet and tender an immediate public apology to him for the falsehood published about his person.”

The statement reads

“We wish to re-affirm that H.E Abdulaziz Yari, the former governor of Zamfara state is a law-abiding Nigerian who will never resort to violence on any issue whatsoever. “H.E Yari holds the Federal Government of Nigeria in very high esteem and supports all steps taken by the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 to fight the deadly pandemic.”

It will be noted that FAAN had condemned violation of the new protocols and guidelines at the airports by some Very Important Persons (VIPs) barely a week after the airports were reopened. The Managing Director of FAAN, Capt. Hamisu Yadudu, said there were two incidents where VIPs broke the COVID-19 protocols and assaulted airport officials.