109 Nigerians repatriated from Mali, to be isolated

Juliana Francis

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), yesterday, received 109 stranded Nigerians repatriated from Mali.

NEMA Southwest Coordinator, Ibrahim Fariloye, disclosed that the returnees would be isolated for 14 days in Ikeja before they would be free.

The returnees arrived at the International Wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport Ikeja at about 03:15am, with 11 adult men, 89 adult women with four male children and five female children.

He disclosed that the returnees were assisted back into Nigerian by the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

The Director General of NEMA, AVM Muhammad A Muhammadu (rtd), while addressing the returnees, enjoined them to always avoid those that promise greener pastures outside the shores of Nigeria. He stressed that there was nothing like, “greener pastures” any longer, anywhere.

Muhammadu said: “Please be wary of close friends and relatives, who lure and expose you to unnecessary hazards that are life threatening. I plead with you all, to make better use of your lives after your successful return to Nigeria. The government is ready to provide equal opportunities to everyone. The federal government has several social development programmes and other incentives meant for empowering the youth in the country.”

One of the returnees, Miss Irhobosa Lawrence Orhumnzie, 21, who left Nigeria six months ago, with the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) as destination country.

She narrated: “My madam took about 25 of us, promising to take us to Dubai. We took off from Lagos and crossed over to Cotonou in Togo and from there we went straight to Mali. But as we entered Bamako, Mali, the Malian Police arrested our madam and all of us. They asked us if we were interested to go back to Nigeria, all of us volunteered to return to our country. We don't know what is happening with our madam. They asked us if we were interested in dealing with our madam, we just told them that they should do whatever they wanted to do with her but we just wanted to return to Nigeria. From there, we were taken to Nigerian Embassy, but the Coronavirus pandemic did not allow the embassy to bring us, until IOM came to our rescue. We have been staying in the embassy all along.”