Why we didn't bring Nigerians stranded in India home- Minister explains

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has explained why he could not bring evacuees in India home.

Giving an explanation at the briefing on COVID-19 which held in Abuja yesyterday, Onyeama said it was because of a new protocol initiated by the private sector and spearheaded by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote.

"One of the benefits of it is that there will no longer be a need to quarantine in hotels, costs that will come with it and burden to the evacuees. This would require a number of things to be put in place like the human resources and also the equipment," he explained.

Going further he said;

"We had 2 local carriers that were booked to carry nationals of other countries, in this case, China and India within 4 days of each other returning them to their countries. These were dates that had been scheduled for some weeks back.

"So with the new mechanism that was brought into force, was the requirement of testing 5 days before boarding. We contacted the private sector behind these initiatives, the feedback was that it will be ready soon."

He apologised for not doing what they envisaged with India unlike the case with China. However, he promised that the initiative would work soonest.

We know all the challenges these evacuees are facing, i've been in constant touch with the High Commissioner in India everyday and also with a number of our nationals who are there, so i'm fully aware and it pains me enormously the real human challenges that they are all facing,

— Geoffrey Onyeama (@GeoffreyOnyeama) June 2, 2020