By Akinwale Kasali
Mixed reactions have trailed the statement made by the Federal Government that it spent a whopping $1.2 million to deploy 40 Buses to evacuate, at least, 2,400 stranded Nigerians out of Sudan.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this disclosure after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers of Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Onyeama said the high cost of the evacuation was to provide security cover for the eight-hour journey from Luxol to Cairo and the eleven-hour trip from Aswan to Cairo, Egypt.
Although the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces agreed to halt hostilities at midnight Monday, local media reports that fighting had resumed even as a hospital was shelled on Wednesday.
While noting that no Nigerian lost their lives in the conflict, Onyeama said there were no talks about alternative plans for continued education for the evacuees, most of whom are students of the University of Khartoum.
This disclosure by the Minister has however led to mixed feelings as some cross section of Nigerians believe that amount was outrageous, suspecting corruption to have taken place.
A Social Commentator, Mayowa Lawal, said that it is outrageous for the FG to have spent close to a Billion to evacuate that number of people is fraudulent.
She argued that for 40 Buses to have charged that amount shows foul play and fraud from the part of the FG and the Ministry.
In the same vein, Dayo Adedoyin another Social Commentator explained that it further shows that the President Buhari Administration is not only corrupt but a shame to the corruption war it portends to fight in which he is also corrupt.
It would be recalled that the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, explained that the evacuation planned for Tuesday failed due to logistic challenges.
Chairperson of the Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed that the new travel plans were finalised Tuesday night.
She tweeted, “Last night, the Nigeria Evacuation team in Sudan received some buses to transport Nigerian Students to nearby borders in Egypt, before airlifting them to Nigeria, this has been sorted by the Federal Government through @nemanigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan.
“More buses are arriving this morning and the stranded students will depart today.”
