It has been revealed that a total of 826 Nigerians stranded in Libya have voluntarily returned to the country. The returnees include 270 Nigerians who arrived into the country via the Murtala Mohammed International Airport on Tuesday. They were received by officialsof the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA the Nigerian Immigration Service National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and the Police.
According to the NEMA, the returnees had been stuck in Libya while attempting to cross to Europe.
Mustapha Maihajja, Director General of NEMA,who spoke through Suleiman Yakubu, the South West Zonal Coordinator of the agency, said the returnees were assisted back to Nigeria by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, and the European Union, EU.
He said that the fresh batch and another groups of 138 Nigerians earlier brought back on Oct. 3; 257 on Oct. 24, and 161 on Oct. 26, made the total number of returnees in October 826.
The NEMA boss urged the returnees to contribute their quota to national development, stressing that the quest to build Nigeria required the support of all and sundry.
The returnees landed the airport at 7.30pm aboard a Libyan Airline aircraft with registration number 5A-LAU.
They comprised 216 female adults, 13 teenage girls and five infants, while the male adults were 27, 18 were teenage boys and nine, baby boys.
