The Federal Government has evacuated 191 stranded Nigerians in India back to Nigeria.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, airlifted the returnees to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Friday, December 16, 2022.
At 4.40 p.m., an Ethiopian Airlines-chartered aircraft carrying the returnees landed at the Abuja airport, where they were met by a receiving team headed by NEMA and other pertinent authorities.
The returnees were given a token of $100 USD or its equivalent after being profiled and screened for transportation to their respective homes.
Addressing the returnees, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq welcomed them on behalf of the federal government.
The Minister who was represented by a Deputy Director in the Ministry, Dr Suleiman Abubakar admonished them to be law abiding. She said the token provided them by the federal government was meant to support their movement home.
In his remarks, Director-General NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmed advised the returnees to learn from their experiences and be law abiding citizens.
The NEMA boss who was represented by the Deputy Director Search and Rescue, Ishaya Isa chonoko, said the federal government had approved the evacuation to ease the suffering of Nigerians stranded abroad to bring them back home safely.
The returnees appreciated the federal Government for the special intervention in their safe evacuation back home.
Among officials that received the returnees were staff of airport agencies, military, Nigerian Police, Nigerian Immigration Service, National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), NAPTIP, Nigerian Diaspora Commission, NDLEA, Nigerian Correctional Service, Nigerian Customs service, Port Health Services, NCDC and others.
