Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, has revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria spent one million dollars to evacuate 355 Nigerian football fans stranded in Russia after the 2018 World Cup
Onyeama made this known on Monday in Abuja while fielding questions from newsmen, and said that the evacuation was done in two batches of 155 persons and 200 persons accordingly.
He also said that the second batch of 200 fans was returned to the country along with 17 Ghanaian football fans who were also stranded in Russia on Sunday.
He stated that the money spent on the exercise was huge, particularly in the hard times in the country, and urged Nigerians to travel out of the country in a regular and legal manner.
Onyeama said Nigeria had affirmed its Big Brother role in Africa by by airlifting the 17 Ghanaians. He then went on to reveal that the Ghanaian authorities had appreciated the gesture through its Minister of Foreign Affairs as the Russia returnees were transported to Ghana on Monday
Onyeama vented his frustrations when he reminded the public that that the first batch of 155 fans, including a nursing mother, were evacuated from Russia after the Mundial in July and revealed further that although they had been profiled by the Nigerian mission in Russia, several of the stranded fans still decided to abscond.
He however urged them to report at the mission as the government had made provision for their return.
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President Muhammadu Buhari had directed Onyeama and his Aviation counterpart, Hadi Sirika, to immediately evacuate the stranded Nigerians back to the country following an international reportage on the fans stranded in Russia.
“A week ago, we learnt that there was another huge number of Nigerians stranded and Russian authorities were going to take very strong measures. And again, the President directed that another plane should be made available to go and bring them back. They were 200 of them that were brought back on Sunday at a cost of one million dollars to the country,” Onyeama revealed
The stranded fans have gone through depressing and frustrating times as some of them recounted how they were scammed by travel agents who cancelled their return tickets leaving them stranded on the streets of Russia.
“We will, however, take the matter up with the travel agents; we will get to the bottom of the matter. It is very depressing and very annoying because we have a lot of challenges in our countries and the few resources we have, we want to utilise it on Nigerians. It is not to spend money to bring back people who just act in a very irresponsible fashion. Onyeama concluded.