A total of 292 Nigerians who were stranded in Saudi Arabia has landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Tuesday night.
Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria officials at the airport confirmed this on Wednesday in Abuja. The returnees were part of those expected by the Federal Government from foreign nations.
“They arrived the international wing of the NAIA on Tuesday night and are part of the evacuees expected from other countries by government,” a senior official at the airport told our correspondent.
“Several buses were on standby, as they were conveyed out of the airport to their isolation centres in the city,” the official added.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who also tweeted the return of the evacuees, said the returnees were doing well and had settled down in hotels for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
We received 292 evacuees stranded in Saudi Arabia yesterday. The Saudi Government transported them to Abuja. A large number are nursing mothers and children and they are all comfortably settled in hotels under the mandatory 14 days quarantine. #COVID19 #PTFCOVID19 @NigeriaGov
— Geoffrey Onyeama (@GeoffreyOnyeama) May 20, 2020
Onyeama announced that the evacuees came into Abuja with a large number of nursing mothers and children.
The minister said, “We received 292 evacuees stranded in Saudi Arabia yesterday. The Saudi Government transported them to Abuja.
“A large number are nursing mothers and children and they are all comfortably settled in hotels under the mandatory 14 days’ quarantine.”
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Nigeria has so far evacuated and received about 970 citizens from foreign lands since the outbreak of COVID-19 globally.
Before the latest return of the 292 persons from Saudi Arabia, the country recently received 265 evacuees from the United Arab Emirate, 263 from the United Kingdom and 160 from the United States.
