Hundreds of civil servants lined up on Wednesday to get a COVID-19 vaccine to meet up with the deadline of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC).

Security operatives were on ground at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja on Wednesday to ensure that civil servants without proof of vaccination or negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test were barred from accessing their offices.

On Tuesday, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria criticised the government’s move as “draconian.”

Nonetheless, many civil servants queued up at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) vaccination centres opposite the federal ministries of health and education to get vaccinated.

Chairman of the PSC, Boss Mustapha, had, in October, announced that civil servants without COVID-19 vaccination certificates would be barred from their offices from December 1, 2021.

He had, however, added that civil servants who refuse vaccination would have no choice but to present negative PCR tests every 72 hours.

At the federal secretariat on Wednesday morning, it was observed that security operatives took over major entrances and only workers who presented vaccination certificates and negative Covid-19 PCR tests were allowed access.

Meanwhile, some civil servants expressed satisfaction with the exercise describing it as a welcome development.

Chizoba Iwu, a civil servant who brought her son and daughter to get their shots at one of the three locations, noted that she did not want either of them to catch Covid-19 or to transmit it to anyone else.

“We’ve done our research and it’s safe,” Mrs Iwu said.