By Shola Abayomi.
A great number of Nigerians willing to be evacuated from South Africa, converged on Wednesday morning at the premises of the Nigeria consulate in South Africa where they were conveyed in batches to the OR Tambo airport.
According to reports, more Nigerians were still arriving as the number of interested returnees remain on the increase.
See photos below:
Second bus has just left. People are still queuing to get onto the next bus. #NigeriansLeaveSA #XenophobicAttacks #Nigerians pic.twitter.com/lNDVxP1MTl
— Heidi Giokos (@HeidiGiokos) September 11, 2019
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however revealed in an update today that only 84 out of the 313 Nigerians confirmed as those to form the first batch of evacuees were cleared to embark on the flight to Nigeria which is expected to arrive the Murtala Mohammed International Lagos at 2.pm local time.
It added that the second batch of returnees would depart Johannesburg for Nigeria on Friday.
“The Air Peace aircraft which was scheduled to take off at 9. a.m local time was delayed due to the fact that checking in and clearance procedures by immigration are very very slow.
“There are complains of system failure and out of the 313 confirmed for first batch of evacuation today, only 84 are cleared so far.
“The more the aircraft waits for the passengers, the higher the amount the aircraft will pay for Parking,” the ministry said.