October 13, (THEWILL) – Less than two months 176 returnees were assisted home on August 16, 2022, to Nigeria from Libya, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, on Thursday, received yet another batch of 126 Nigerians stranded in the North African country.
The recent returnees were voluntarily airlifted from Misrata, Libya, through the Voluntary Assisted Programme by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.
This put the figure of the stranded Nigerians from Libya at 302 within a space of two months.
The male Returnees consist of 62 adult females, six female children and four infant females while the male Returnees were 46 adults, two children and six infants.
They all landed at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja at about 4:22 pm aboard an Al Buraq Air with registration number 5A-DMG Boeing 700-787 l.
The Director General of the Agency, Alh Mustapha Habib Ahmed represented by Ibrahim Farinloye while addressing the Returnees, urged Nigerians to be wary of close associates, family friends and neighbourhood elders who would deceive them with sweet talk of a better life in a foreign land.
He said, “These people are found cashing in as messiahs to help Nigerians to slavery which the victims would regret through the rest of their lives.”
The Director General highlighted that the new deceit being used as destination points are Iraq, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Egypt but all their victims end up in connection houses in Libya.
Other agencies that joined NEMA to receive the Returnees were the Nigeria Refugee Commission, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, the State Security Services, SSS, the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
