Coronavirus: FG To Evacuate Nigerians Abroad

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed all its missions abroad to compile a list of willing Nigerian nationals who wished to come back home.

Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed that this was a sequel to requests by Nigerians stranded abroad in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

She, however, said that the MFA had instructed that “the financial implications will be borne by the prospective evacuees, who will be compulsorily quarantined when they returned”.

According to a statement on Friday by the Head, Media and Public Relations Unit, NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, interested citizens should inform the embassy in their country of residence about their intention to return to Nigeria.

It said, “The interested Nigerians are advised to inform the missions in the various countries they are in, which will then collate and coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“To this end, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa urged Nigerians stranded abroad willing to return home to key into this Federal Government gesture by providing information to the mission in their respective host countries.”

The PUNCH had reported that some countries including the UK, US, Israel and member States of the European Union had begun evacuating their citizens from Nigeria using emergency flights permitted by the Federal Government.