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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, said it has successfully evacuated over 3,000 Nigerians to the country.
This was even as the government received 418 Nigerian returnees from the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The repatriated Nigerians, according to the Director, Consular and Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Akinremi Bolaji, were evacuated from Libya, Saudi Arabia and Germany.
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Speaking at the Permanent Hajj Camp, Bassan-Jiwa, Abuja, venue of a media interactive session on the efforts of government on the evacuation of stranded Nigerians abroad, Bolaji said the current set of evacuees were from Saudi Arabia. Bolaji said the returnees from Saudi Arabia were camped in three batches, disclosing that the first batch that arrived on Monday were 255; Tuesday witnessed the arrival of 398 and 418 arrived yesterday.
“All of them will be staying in this facility. We are not just housing them, we are making provision for a new life where the Federal Government is providing N20,000 per person of adult, at least, of 10 years old upward for two reasons: To transport them, part of it, back to where they came or their state. And also, to be able to start a little survival, maybe start a little business because we believe it is something you can start.
“Within a period of two months now, we have received over 3,000 Nigerians. The focus is not just on Saudi Arabia, we also, just two weeks ago, received the IOM-facilitated returnees from Libya. We had 170 of them that came in two batches. We have also received returnees from other places; from Germany, and we are expecting from South Africa.
“So, government is doing everything to ensure Nigerians who are in crisis outside the shores of Nigeria and that deserve to be lifted, are airlifted. We are expecting more from Libya,” Bolaji said.
