Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama has promised that indigenous airline operators in the country will be used in subsequent evacuations of Nigerian nationals who are stranded outside the country.
Just as he affirmed that some flights are already scheduled with some Nigerian airlines.
Onyema however said government will be staggering subsequent repatriations into the country as it has stretched itself thin and cannot deal with the barrage of evacuation requests at once.
The Minister who spoke during the Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing on COVID-19, stated that there are over 600 evacuees in various accommodations in Lagos and Abuja
“Another issue that has been on the media is using Nigerian Airlines. Again the carriers that came from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was not a government organized one and the one from the United Kingdom was coming in already and the one that came from the United States was one that was arranged pretty much private sector initiative.
“The government is mindful of the importance and need to use Nigerian airlines and we are happy to say that the pipeline flights, the flights that we are in the process of arranging are all Nigerian carriers and henceforth going forward we hope that we will be using only Nigerian carriers,” he said.
On the plans to stagger the return of Nigerians from other countries, the minister said,” We have over 600 evacuees in various accommodations in Lagos and Abuja and we are reaching, as I understand from our medical people: saturation point, the maximum we can really cope with and be able to deliver adequately and professionally the services and the care this would mean we will be staggering flights in evacuating Nigerians and making sure we deal with the ones we have n place before bringing back others.
“We certainly hope in a period of time we will bring back some of the others out there. We have Nigerians in China, India, Canada, South Africa, Sudan, France, Lebanon, Egypt and all this really call to question our absorptive capacity to take in such large numbers and clearly our system are strained so we really have to take it easier.”
