Evacuation: 9 Nigerians Stopped From Boarding Flight

As Federal Government continues its evacuation process of Nigerians who are stranded in different countries across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, nine Nigerians on Friday night were excluded from the second evacuation flight from the United States for flouting Government’s COVID-19 guidelines.

According to Mr. Benaoyagha Okoyen, the Consul General of Nigeria in New York, who oversaw the evacuation activities, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the airport said a family of five were among the nine people who were excluded.

Okoyen noted that they were not allowed to check-in after five of them failed to present a negative coronavirus test result.

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According to him, the negative COVID-19 test result is one of the requirements for evacuation under the Revised Quarantine Protocol of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

Speaking about the remaining four, Okoyen explained that they presented their results but had to be dropped because they were on a family ticket with one defaulter, noting that one of the unidentified defaulters did not undergo the COVID-19 test at all in spite of earlier instructions.

Meanwhile, 322 evacuees who fulfilled the requirements of an Ethiopian Airlines flight, departed the Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, on Friday night.

They are expected to arrive at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Saturday afternoon.

This brings the total of evacuees from the US to 487.

The Consul General said those that missed Friday’s flight would be placed on the waiting list for subsequent ones.

He further advised intending evacuees to abide by the rules to avoid a repeat of Friday’s incident.

“We had to turn them back because this is a regulation, and I am using this opportunity to advise those in subsequent flights to obey the rules,” he added.