Respite has come the way of some citizens as at least 289 Nigerians stranded in the United States due to coronavirus-related border closure have returned home.
An Ethiopian Airlines plane conveying the evacuees took off from New Jersey on Tuesday night and is expected to land at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on Wednesday afternoon.
This is the fourth evacuation flight, which brings to 1,095, the total number of stranded Nigerians so far repatriated by the Federal Government from the US.
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Two families of seven were dropped from this flight, according to the Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Benaoyagha Okoyen.
Okoyen said they were denied boarding for failing to present COVID-19 test results, which is a key requirement for the flight.
Furthermore, FG has approved two more evacuation flights, scheduled to depart from Texas and New Jersey on July 31 and August 7 respectively.
Meanwhile, Herald.ng earlier reported that Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has stated that Nigerian students on scholarship abroad have become beggars due to the refusal of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to pay their fees and upkeep allowances.
She appealed to the NDDC to pay the tuition of Nigerian students on its scholarship scheme in the US and the UK saying most of them have been expelled by their institutions for non payment of tuition fees.
Making a statement on the issue, she referenced a June 18 letter, written to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs regarding the plight of Nigerian students a abroad, and urged NDDC to pay them.
She said; “At the moment, there have been persistent calls by the students for urgent intervention. “While the deadline for payment of the fees of some of the students has expired or about to expire, non-payment of their allowances has virtually turned many of them to beggars.”