FGN evacuates 542 stranded Nigerians from UAE
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has evacuated 542 Nigerians who were stranded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The evacuees, who consisted of 79 males, 460 females, and three infants, arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on board Max Air chartered flight yesterday at 4:29 a.m.
They were received by a Federal Government team, led by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), airport officials, and security agencies.
Officials of the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Nigerian Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigerian Correctional Service, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Port Health Services, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and others, were also on the ground to provide essential services to the returnees.
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A statement by the Head of the Press Unit of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Manzo Ezekiel, said the evacuees were given a token for transportation to their various destinations after they were screened by health officials.
They were also said to have been profiled by relevant agencies and cleared by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) officials.
NEMA’s Director General, Mustapha Ahmed, who received the returnees on behalf of the federal government, urged them to learn from their experiences and be law-abiding citizens.
Ahmed, represented by the agency’s Director of Finance and Accounts, Alhaji Sani Jiba, said the federal government approved the evacuation and provision of the token for the returnees to support their movement to their homes.
The Consul General of Nigeria in Dubai, Ambassador Atinuke Mohammed, who accompanied the returnees back to the country, hailed the federal government for its intervention in safely evacuating the stranded citizens back home.
