Nigerian officials have sought to limit panic since announcing Sawyer's death, but mixed messages from the federal health ministry and Lagos state officials have caused confusion among the media and public.


Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu had to retract a statement claiming the Liberian arrived on July 22, after Lagos authorities said he landed on July 20. Chukwu had insisted that Sawyer was brought directly from the airport to a hospital, leaving him
"no time to mingle in Lagos" and infect others, but the accuracy of that statement has been questioned amid the dispute over timelines.

The minister further claimed that Nigeria had
contacted and was monitoring all passengers on the ASKY airlines flight that originated in Togo's capital Lome and brought Sawyer to Lagos.


Abdullahi Nasidi of Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control later indicated that only a handful of the passengers had been found so far. For Francis Atufe, a 36-year-old banker and father of two, the government's apparent struggle to manage the situation was "worrisome," and, like others in the Obalende market, he voiced hope that
foreign experts would deploy across Lagos in numbers.


"I appeal to the WHO to come," he said.