FG explains failure to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Poland

The federal government on Thursday explained the failure to evacuate Nigerians stranded in the Ukrainian war from Poland on Thursday as scheduled. Following the failure, Air Peace charter flight flown to Poland for the evacuation was postponed to Friday.

Official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinremi, explained that the evacuation on Thursday failed because of delay in preparing passengers for the check-in process. Apparently, bureaucratic bottlenecks may have been responsible for the postponed flight from Poland, which was  rescheduled for Friday morning.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved $8.5 million for the evacuation of Nigerians back home from counties on the border of Ukraine. Nigerians resident in Ukraine were estimated to be 5,000, comiant4ed by students. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had disclosed that about 2,000 Nigerians have fled Ukraine to neigbouring countries.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, had identified the countries where Nigerians would board the flights for evacuation to include Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.

Three air crafts – two flights from Air Peace and one from Max Air – were chartered for the evacuation operations.