The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday repatriated 150 stranded Nigerians in Niger Republic.
This would be the second time the agency welcomed returnees this year.
Earlier on February 20, NEMA received 150 Nigerians stranded in the neighbouring country.
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They were received by NEMA Coordinator in Kano Territorial Office, Nuradeen Abdullahi at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on behalf of NEMA’s director-general, Mustapha Habib-Ahmed.
Other officials who welcomed the returnees were Also on the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, Red Cross Society, Directorate of State Security, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
He said the returnees are from different parts of Nigeria, particularly Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Katsina, Benue, and Abia states.
Abdullahi said:
“The returnees were repatriated to Nigeria from Niamey under the care of the International Organisation for Migration in a voluntary repatriation programme.
“The programme is meant for distressed Nigerians who left the country to seek greener pastures in various European countries but could not afford to return when their journeys were aborted midway.
“The returnees comprised 66 male adults, 27 female adults and 57 children (33 female and 24 male).
“The returnees will undergo a three-day training programme on how to achieve self-sustainability and would be provided with seed capitals to enable them to engage in productive ventures and to be self-reliant.”
One Izehi Solomon-Kamsi (30), from Abia, who recounted his ordeal said he paid five hundred dollars ($500) to be smuggled to Libya.
Solomon-Kamsi said:
“In Libya, on my way to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, I was jailed for six months, while in Algeria, I spent two months in prison.
“I suffered a lot because I spent three years in the Sahara while trying to go to Germany to seek greener pasture.”
Also, Dose John, a single mother of two from Benue, said she travelled to Libya to seek greener pastures after her father died and left her sick mother and three siblings.
Abdullahi in the end, charged returnees to be law-abiding and avoid illegal migration.
He advised intending migrants that no country was better than theirs.
