457 Nigerians repatriated from Niger, India

Four hundred and fifty-seven Nigerians that were stranded in Niger Republic and India were returned to the country on Friday.

Daily Trust reports that 266 returnees from Niger Republic were received by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano.

Also, 191 returnees from India were received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Friday.

Their repatriation came barely a few days after the agency NEMA received 105 stranded Nigerians from Chad.

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Receiving the Niger returnees, the Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed Habib, said they were brought back to Kano under the care of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) from Niamey, Niger Republic, through a voluntary repatriation programme.

Represented by NEMA’s Coordinator in Kano, Dr Nuradeen Abdullahi, the DG said, “130 returnees arrived Thursday night at about 11pm while 136 arrived on Friday at about 4am, noting that there were 144 males, 56 females and 66 children.

He said, “The programme is meant for distressed Nigerians who had left the country to seek greener pastures in various European countries and could not afford to return when their journey became frustrated.”

He explained that the returnees would undergo a four-day training on how to achieve self-sustainability and be provided with seed capital to enable them to engage in productive activities to be self-reliant.

Also, the media officer, NEMA, Manzo Ezekiel said the returnees from India arrived in Nigeria in an Ethiopian Airline charted flight at  4:40pm.

Recounting her ordeal, one of the returnees, Hajiya Salamatu Muhammad, from Kano State, said she travelled to Niger with her six-year-old granddaughter to seek greener pastures.