By Ola Kay
Barring any last minute challenge, the Federal Government has said it is prepared for the final evacuation flight for Nigerians returning home voluntarily from South Africa as it ensures their arrival in Lagos on Wednesday. The move is expected to bring an end to the ongoing repatriation exercise initiated in response to the recent xenophobic violence, necessitating the need for non-nationals to leave the country.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, in a statement on Tuesday informed that the flight, to be operated by Air Peace, is scheduled to depart Johannesburg at 1:30 a.m. with 315 Nigerian returnees on board.
Ebienfa said the aircraft is expected to arrive at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, at approximately 6:30 a.m.
The exercise will be the fifth evacuation flight organised by the Federal Government and the seventh batch of Nigerians repatriated from South Africa since the evacuation exercise commenced following the xenophobic attacks.
According to official report, over 1,000 Nigerians had indicated interest in returning home under the voluntary evacuation programme.
The previous evacuation flight landed in Nigeria on July 9 with 282 returnees, increasing the total number of Nigerians repatriated since the first evacuation flight on June 11 to 1,141.
Following the latest developments, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has appealed to Nigerians interested in returnimg home to take advantage of the evacuation exercise.
Her appeal followed reports that two additional Nigerian citizens had died in South Africa, raising the official death toll linked to the latest wave of xenophobic violence to four. Some of the repatriated Nigerians, however, have claimed that the number of fatalities may be higher.
The minister equally assured Nigerians that the Federal Government remained committed to ensuring that every citizen who registered and expressed a desire to return home would be accommodated under the repatriation programme put the n place by the federal government.
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