No fewer than 15,000 Nigerians willing to return home remain stranded in South Africa on the eve of a June 30 deadline issued by anti-immigration groups, even as the Federal Government ramps up its repatriation drive with the evacuation of 271 more citizens.
A stranded Nigerian alleged that some government officials in South Africa were extorting people seeking to be added to the evacuation list. “I am tired. The officials here are asking people for money before they will be included in the list. I can no longer wait for Nigeria to come home. I have purchased my own ticket and will be coming home next week, but so many others don’t have money to buy their way home,” the source told Vanguard.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Kimiebi Ebienfa denied the extortion allegation, insisting nobody was being charged. He confirmed that an Air Peace aircraft departed Nigeria on Monday afternoon and was expected to leave South Africa with evacuees around midnight, arriving in Lagos on Tuesday morning with 271 additional returnees. He added that roughly 700 more Nigerians would be evacuated depending on conditions on the ground.
Air Peace spokesperson Efe Osifo-Whiskey confirmed the airline was preparing to evacuate 271 Nigerians but said the flight had been delayed for unexplained reasons as of late Monday afternoon.
The evacuation forms part of a programme approved by President Bola Tinubu to facilitate the voluntary return of Nigerians ahead of planned anti-immigrant protests. The government approved five Air Peace evacuation flights on June 7 after more than 1,000 Nigerians were screened for the exercise. So far, 334 Nigerians have been evacuated in two earlier batches, including 268 who arrived on June 11 and 66 mostly women and children who landed on June 25 via ValueJet.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said evacuations would continue beyond the June 30 deadline to ensure no willing returnee was left behind, noting that the exercise was being coordinated with NEMA, the Nigeria Immigration Service, FAAN, and NIDCOM. Nigerians choosing to remain in South Africa were urged to stay calm, avoid protest routes, and remain in contact with the Nigerian High Commission.
The repatriation drive comes amid rising violence targeting Nigerians in South Africa. President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Smart Nwobi, confirmed the deaths of two Nigerians ahead of the protests, including a businessman known as Big Joe, who was shot dead outside his shop in Witbank, Mpumalanga Province.
