253 Nigerians, who have been
stranded in Libya were Tuesday
deported back to Nigeria aboard
an Airbus A333-200 with
registration number 5A LAT.

The 253 returnees who were
conveyed on the Libyan Airline
plane comprised of 140 adult
females and 8 children. Also
aboard were 103 adult male and
3 male children.
This is the largest single batch of
deportees to arrive Lagos Airport
in recent times. The returnees
journey back to Nigeria, as usual ,
was facilitated by International
Organisation for Migration, IOM,
after the Federal Government
asked for its assistance after
confirming that some Nigerians
were willing to return home.
The aircraft conveying them
landed at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, MMIA,
around 8:10pm yesterday and
were received at the Hajj Terminal
by the National Emergency
Management Agency, NEMA. There
were two medical cases among
the deportees with one of them
suffering serious burns on her
face and the second had mental
depression.
Addressing newsmen at the Hajj
Camp wing of the airport where
the returnees were profiled, the
Director General of NEMA, Engr
Mustapha Maihaja , represented
by the Deputy Director, Search
and Rescue, Dr. Abdullahi
Onimode, said the deportees
would be given some token to go
back to their respective
destinations. He also advised
those leaving the country in
search of greener pastures to
have a rethink and stay in the
country to develop it.
The NEMA boss, in a repeated
sermon, said, “We are giving
them some stipends. We need to
let them realize that the country
they left some years ago is not
the same country they are
meeting today. We have moved
ahead and everybody now has
equal opportunity to be the best
you can be.”
Some of the deportees said they
will never leave Nigeria again.
One of them who identified
herself as Mary told Vanguard that
it was a miracle she returned
safely back to Nigeria as she was
being sold like a piece of
merchandise in Libya. According
to her,” They were selling some of
us like wood from one guard who
will take us to some destination
and again sell us to another who
will now be our new owner. That
will take us again to some
distance and say his contract with
us has expire and again sell us to
another person.”
She added that “ if you complain ,
they will ask you if you don’t
want to go to Europe again. My
brother, e no easy”, she laughed

Back to square one..... welcome to Nigeria