542 Nigerians were left stranded in the United Arab Emirates, and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has taken care of them (UAE).
In a statement released on Sunday in Abuja, Mr. Manzo Ezekiel, Head of the Press Unit of NEMA, corroborated this information.
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According to him, the returning passengers boarded the Max Air Charted aircraft at 4:29 a.m. and landed safely at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
The number of people who returned was as follows: 79 males, 460 females, and three newborns.
Before being granted a token to assist them in their journey to their respective NEMA destinations, he noted that the returnees were examined by health experts, profiled by several relevant agencies, and approved by the Nigerian Immigration Service.
Earlier, Mr. Mustapha Ahmed, Director-General of NEMA, who formally greeted the returnees on behalf of the Federal Government, advised them to take what they had learned from their experiences and become law-abiding citizens as a result of what they had gone through.
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Ahmed, who was represented by the Director of Finance and Account of the agency, Mr. Sani Jiba, added that the Federal Government had approved the evacuation and the provision of the token to support their movement back to their various homes. Ahmed said that Mr. Sani Jiba would be responsible for distributing the tokens to the evacuees.
Amb. Atinuke Mohammed, the Consul General of Nigeria in Dubai, who escorted the returnees back into the nation, expressed his gratitude to the Federal Government for its extraordinary involvement in the people’s safe evacuation.
The returnees were met at the airport by representatives from NEMA, officials from the airport, security agencies, the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), NAPTIP, NIDCOM, NDLEA, the Nigerian Correctional Service, the Nigerian Customs Service, NCDC, and Port Health Services, among other organizations.