Last night Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe airport was thrown into disarray as over 350 Nigerian deportees from the Central African Republic (CAR) arrived in the capital.
The deportees, mainly women, children and the sick, arrived on an Arik Airlines flight from Bangui, the CAR’s capital at around 8:45pm, the second of three schedules flight filled with Nigerians leaving the crisis-torn country.
The large number of deportees added to the crowd of other passengers returning to Abuja after the Christmas and New Year holidays, leaving the airport in chaos.
There were no extra officials present to handle the check-in and exit of the deportees, and government officials were nowhere to be seen as the flight arrived hours later than scheduled.
The arrivals yesterday came after a woman, who was among the first batch of 365 Nigerians evacuated from CAR amidst the country’s political unrest, gave birth to twin boys on arrival at the airport on Friday.
The National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA) Deputy Director of Planning, Research and Forecasting, Alhaji Alhassan Nuhu, told newsmen at the airport last week that the evacuees would be held at the airport's Hajj Camp before been dispatched to their various states of origin.
The CAR evacuees and deportees followed 508 Nigerian deportees from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Abuja last week.
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