COVID: 1739 Foreigners Leave Nigeria For Home

By Chuks Ekpeneru

No fewer than 1,739 foreigners have left Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, since the evacuation exercise began about 10 days ago.

This was disclosed by the Regional Manager, South-West Airport of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Victoria Shin-Aba in a chat with journalists on Tuesday in Lagos.

She said the evacuation exercise commenced with the transportation of French and European citizens by Air France late March. She said that several airlines, including two Nigerian carriers participated in the movement of the foreign nationals out of the country.

She said that the evacuation exercise had been going on smoothly with little or no hitches at all.

Shin-Aba said that FAAN, in collaboration with other agencies, would continue to carry out its duties with utmost caution and professionalism.

“So far, the activities have been okay and well-coordinated. Since the closure of the airport, we have had about 10 evacuations with different nationals.

“The conditions are that you have to get an approval from the Federal Ministry of Aviation, when the ministry gives the approval, it is sent to FAAN, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

“Then, we send the approval to all the security agencies too. Most importantly, there is a procedure in place for the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which has to be followed.

“Apart from today (Tuesday), we have had 1,539 evacuations through the Lagos Airport alone.

“Today, United States is having another 200, another batch of Americans will be airlifted tomorrow (Wednesday) and next week, we are having South African Airways and Air France too.

“They can come up with any plan in the course of the week. That is why we are essential workers.

Shin-Aba, however, decried that the revenue generation of FAAN had been impacted in the past weeks.

According to her, on the average, the terminal handles 23-28 flights delay, but had been dropped drastically to just 10 flights in 10 days.

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