Breaking: FG Suspends Evacuation Of Nigerians Abroad

By Adesina Soyooye

For Nigerians desperate to come back to their country, it is a case of hope dashed.

The Nigerian Government   on Monday suspended their evacuation.

Explaining the disappointing suspension, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geofrey Onyema, attributed it to logistics problem.

Since the COVID-19, which is ravaging the whole world, countries have been evacuating their citizens from other countries, especially, those who got caught up in the suspension of international flights.

Last week, Nigeria started the evacuation of its citizens, but it has met with one problem or the other.

The first evacuation from the United Kingdom ended in an embarrassment as the evacuees were left stranded, at the MMIA, Lagos tarmac, for hours, from where they ought to have been airlifted to Abuja for the mandatory 14-day quarantine. Onyema apologised, saying it was due to the late arrival of the operating aircraft.

The second batch from Dubai, made an air-return when an evacuee gave birth to a baby on board the Emirates flight an hour into the flight. The flight, however, operated later, after a change of the aircraft type.

The third batch arrived from the USA on Sunday.

The FG had assured, earlier,  that proper arrangements had been made for the accommodation of the evacuees in hotels in Lagos and Abuja.

But earlier, there were reports that hotel owners in both Abuja and Lagos had rejected the use of their facilities for quarantine.

Onyema did not disclose the nature of the logistic problem, but  said the FG would, for now, concentrate on the about 600 who have already been evacuated to the country.

He did not, also, indicate when the evacuation would resume.

Over 700 Nigerians are reportedly still waiting to be evacuated.