Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to evacuate Nigerians stranded in different
countries due to the Coronavirus pandemic.The Committee condemned the decision by the Federal Government to engage
the services of foreign airlines to evacuate Nigerians abroad when there
are capable indigenous operators to handle the operations.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, called on the federal
government to reverse the decision and revert to capable indigenous
operators to carry out the evacuation exercise.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (Coronavirus) had announced that
the federal government would commence the evacuation of stranded
Nigerians in United Kingdom, United States and Dubai, United Arab
Emirates (UAE) from Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
The House of Representatives Committee, however frowned at the
engagement of foreign airlines, including Ethiopian Airlines, British
Airways and Emirates to airlift stranded Nigerians from Dubai, London
and America.
The evacuation arrangements were handled by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
The lawmaker called for the immediate cancellation of the contracts and
the reversal to the capable domestic operators, noting that America and
Britain recently evacuated their citizens from Nigeria without the use
of other countries’ carriers.
Nnaji urged the Aviation Minister to revoke the landing rights already
granted the three airlines.
“The action of those responsible for this action is not only a
disservice to the local airlines which have done their best to provide
patriotic service to Nigerians but equally detrimental to our national
pride and dignity,” he said.
According to a schedule released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the
first batch of evacuees of 265 from Dubai would arrive Nigeria
Wednesday, May 6,2020, another 300 are to arrive from London on Friday
May 8 on British Airways.
On Monday, 11th May Ethiopian Airline will airlift those coming from
United States of America.
The lawmaker insisted there are capable Nigerian operators with long
haul aircraft that can handle the operations that should have been
engaged by the Task Force.
He said: “I am aware that Air Peace has three Boeing 777s, Max Air has
four Boeing 747s and Azman recently acquired Airbus A340-600 series
which can be deployed for these charters.
“Air Peace, apart from the operations it did to evacuate Nigerians from
South Africa during the xenophobic attacks last year, has handled two
special charters this COVID-19 period to China for medical evacuation
and to Israel to evacuate Israeli National out of Nigeria and Max Air
has been operating in Hajj without hitches.
“Why can’t we for once begin to believe in ourselves? Why must we look
outside for everything? I was thinking that the lessons of this
prevailing pandemic would make us change our ways of doing things.
Nigerians must demand explanations for this action of the PTF.”