FACILITIES OVER STRETCHED, WE’LL STAGGER SUBSEQUENT EVACUATION OF NIGERIANS ABROAD, SAYS MINISTER
Nigerians anxious to return home would have to exercise patience as facilities for their accommodation back home were already overstretched.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made the disclosure on Monday at the weekly briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, who put the figures of returnees so far from the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America at 600, revealed that there were Nigerians in China, France, India, South Africa, Sudan, among others who want to return the country.
He however lamented that the position of the medical experts in the PTF team was that the facilities at home were already overstretched which necessitated the decision to stagger subsequent evacuation moves.
He said: “Now we have over 600 evacuees in various accommodation in Lagos and in Abuja and as I understand from our medical people, we are at saturation point and the maximum we can really cope with and able to deliver adequately and professionally with care that we are supposed to.
“This will mean, we will be staggering our flight in evacuating Nigerians and making sure that we do with the ones that we have in place before bringing back others.
“But we certainly hope that with adequate period of time, we will be able to bring back some of the others out there.
“There are many still out there: Nigerians in China, in India, Canada, South Africa, Sudan, France Lebanon, Egypt and all these really call to question our capacity to absorb such large numbers and truly, our system is being strained and we really have to take it easier and also to ensure that we can deliver optimally as we are supposed to.”
Mr Onyeama however has cheering news for local airlines operators as he revealed that they would be considered in subsequent evacuation flights.
“Another issue that has come up in the media has been the issue of using Nigerian carriers. I have explained in the past and I will do that just very quickly again.
“The carrier that came from the UAE wasn’t a government organised one and the one from UK was one that was coming already and the one that came from the US was the one that had been arranged and pretty much it was a private sector initiative.
“The government is being mindful of the importance and the need to use local carriers and I am happy to say that the pipeline flights, the ones we had in process of arranging are all Nigerian carriers. So, henceforth going forward, we hope that we will be using only Nigerian carriers.”
Nigerians anxious to return home would have to exercise patience as facilities for their accommodation back home were already overstretched.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made the disclosure on Monday at the weekly briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, who put the figures of returnees so far from the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America at 600, revealed that there were Nigerians in China, France, India, South Africa, Sudan, among others who want to return the country.
He however lamented that the position of the medical experts in the PTF team was that the facilities at home were already overstretched which necessitated the decision to stagger subsequent evacuation moves.
He said: “Now we have over 600 evacuees in various accommodation in Lagos and in Abuja and as I understand from our medical people, we are at saturation point and the maximum we can really cope with and able to deliver adequately and professionally with care that we are supposed to.
“This will mean, we will be staggering our flight in evacuating Nigerians and making sure that we do with the ones that we have in place before bringing back others.
“But we certainly hope that with adequate period of time, we will be able to bring back some of the others out there.
“There are many still out there: Nigerians in China, in India, Canada, South Africa, Sudan, France Lebanon, Egypt and all these really call to question our capacity to absorb such large numbers and truly, our system is being strained and we really have to take it easier and also to ensure that we can deliver optimally as we are supposed to.”
Mr Onyeama however has cheering news for local airlines operators as he revealed that they would be considered in subsequent evacuation flights.
“Another issue that has come up in the media has been the issue of using Nigerian carriers. I have explained in the past and I will do that just very quickly again.
“The carrier that came from the UAE wasn’t a government organised one and the one from UK was one that was coming already and the one that came from the US was the one that had been arranged and pretty much it was a private sector initiative.
“The government is being mindful of the importance and the need to use local carriers and I am happy to say that the pipeline flights, the ones we had in process of arranging are all Nigerian carriers. So, henceforth going forward, we hope that we will be using only Nigerian carriers.”
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