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VIDEO: Russia-Ukraine War: ‘They Lied To Us About $8.5m’ – Stranded Nigerians After FG Delays Evacuation

Published

4 years ago

March 3, 2022

BIGPEN

Some stranded Nigerians fleeing Ukraine through Romania have raised the alarm after the Federal Government, on Thursday, fails to commence their evacuation from the war zone.

BIGPENNGR reports that an Air Peace charter flight was scheduled to evacuate Nigerians fleeing Ukraine today but the exercise has been postponed.

Some of the Nigerians who slept at the Romania airport awaiting their evacuation, in a telephone conversation with BIGPENNGR, said; “The government actually promised that they will take us back home but we have been in the airport since yesterday (Wednesday) 1:am till today, Thursday and we are still stranded at the airport.

“They just promised but did nothing. It is really messed up and we are really stressed out with the long distance we walked from before getting here. It doesn’t really make sense”, he said.

Another who spoke in an emotion laden voice said; “Please help us publish this. We don’t know what they are doing with the money they gave them for evacuation.

“If there is any way you can help this information get across, Nigerians are really stranded here.

“They lied in the news that they gave out $8.5million dollar to evacuate us but we are still here. Nothing is going on here”, he added.

But an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinremi, explained that the flight scheduled to evacuate the people was postponed due to a delay in preparing passengers for the check-in process.

‘The flight has now been scheduled for Friday morning’, he said.

About 2,000 Nigerians have fled Ukraine, amid a Russian invasion, to neigbouring countries, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.

The Federal Government on Wednesday said it has approved $8.5m for the evacuation of citizens.

According to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, the countries where the pickup flights would be headed include – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.

Two flights from Air Peace and one from Max Air are expected to carry out the evacuation exercise.