Ukraine: Why FG delayed evacuation of Nigerians- Foreign Affairs Ministry

The Federal Government has delayed the evacuation of Nigerians fleeing the Russia-Ukraine crisis till Friday (today).

This was made known by two top officials of the Federal Government coordinating the return of Nigerians back to Nigeria.

The first batch of the flights from Poland, Romania and Hungary aboard Air Peace and Max Air were earlier scheduled to arrive Abuja on Thursday (yesterday).

The Leader of the Nigerian delegation and Director, Consular and Legal Services, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinremi, announced the delay.

Akinremi said this followed the delay in the check-in of passengers.

He said arrangements had been made to ensure that all the passengers stayed together in the same hotel and left the hotel at 4am in buses to join the flight.

The Nigerian Ambassador to Poland, Christian Ugwu, also confirmed the development.

Ugwuanyi said it was difficult gathering the Nigerian nationals to embark on the trip.

He said he had to be hard on some of them.

He said: “You have to work hard to gather them together, especially young people, exuberant.

“Even here, some of them at the airport were arrested.

“One of them was arrested for moving about.

“So, these are the problems we encountered, but I am very sure by tomorrow (today) morning, the flight will take off.”