NEMA receives 1, 800 Saudi Arabia returnees at Kano airport

By Bashir Mohammed Kano

Th e federal government over the weekend began evacuation of 1,800 Nigerians who are illegally residing in Saudi Arabia. Already, no fewer than 198 persons, including women and children, had returned to the country on board a Med-View aircraft. Th e 198 Nigerians arrived at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport around 10am on Saturday. Offi cials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Kano received the fi rst batch of the returnees. Consular offi cer at the Nigerian Consular Mission in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Yahaya-Sani, who led the illegal immigrants to Nigeria, told newsmen at the at airport that the federal government sponsored their return to Nigeria.

According to him, the illegal migrants voluntarily reported Nigerian Embassy for deporting to Nigeria in compliance with three month evacuation notice issued to them by Saudi authorities, which expired today. He said contrary to speculations, the returnees were not deported, rather they voluntarily accepted the amnesty off er granted them by the Saudi authorities for illegal immigrants to leave the country. “Th ey decided on their own to return to Nigeria. Th e Saudi authorities off ered amnesty to all illegal immigrants to leave the country within three months,” he said. Th e offi cial handed over the returnees to NEMA offi cials at the airport who witnessed and documented their returns before they later departed to their

 

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