The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday, said it has evacuated 191 stranded Nigerians from India.
The returnees arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines chartered flight, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 4:40 p.m., and were received by a team led by NEMA and other relevant agencies, after being profiled and screened.
Thereafter, the returnees were then given a token of one hundred U.S. dollars each to aid their transportation back to their respective destinations.
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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, welcomed them on behalf of the federal government.
The minister, who was represented by Suleiman Abubakar, a deputy director at the ministry, encouraged them to be law-abiding.
Director-General, NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, also advised the returnees to learn from their experiences and be law-abiding citizens.
Mr Ahmed, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, Ishaya Chonoko, spoke on the reason the federal government had approved the evacuation.
According to him, the evacuation was to ease the suffering of Nigerians stranded abroad.
Iwuchukwu Gospel, who spoke on behalf of the other returnees, appreciated the government for the special intervention in their safe evacuation back home.
He said:
“We thank the government for bringing us back, though for myself I went there some months back and when I got there, I saw that Nigeria was better than where I went to.
“I made up my mind that I am coming back, but I want to plead with the Federal Government to help bring others back.”
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