13th January, 2018
The Yobe State government on Saturday reunited 29 indigenes of the state repatriated from Libya to Nigeria with their families.
Alhaji Ahmed Goniri, Commissioner for Justice and Chairman of the repatriation committee, said the affected persons were repatriated to the country through the Port Harcourt international airport.
He said that the 29 persons willingly submitted themselves to be repatriated back to Nigeria due to scarcity of law and order in Libya.
“These people have been in Libya doing legitimate business long before the break down of the political situation in that country.
“The deteriorating political situation in Libya, made Nigerians unsafe and soft targets of attack which made them to come back home” he said.
Goniri, said the 29 returnees were fully screened by security agencies and health institutions are to ascertain their status before released into the society.
Also Alhaji Musa Jidawa, Permanent Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), commended NEMA for the good working synergy to safeguard the returnees.
“The timely response by Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam in providing logistics to evacuate the returnees from PortHarcourt facilitated speedy reunion of the returnees with their families and, decongestion of Port Harcourt camp.”
The permanent secretary assured that government was ready to evacuate more persons who may be repatriated from Libya or any other country.
“We have a responsive administration under Gaidam which is responding to the plight of its indegenes especially in emergency situations” Jidawa said.
NAN reports that the Federal Government said it evacuated 1,030 stranded Nigerian migrants from Libya between Jan. 7 and Jan 8.
A Federal Government team to Libya, led by Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, had on Jan. 5 led a delegation on fact finding mission to Libya to secure the release of Nigerian migrants stranded in that country.